Douglas Feith

Douglas Jay Feith served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, the third ranking civilian position at the Pentagon, from July 2001 until his resignation effective August 8, 2005.

Intelligence Controversy

Intelligence was produced by the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group, created by Feith, while he was under secretary of defence for policy. The group “developed, produced and then disseminated" Intelligence reports that linked Iraq and Al Qaeda

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticised the intelligence produced by Feith's group, he said “I think they sought this kind of intelligence. They made it clear they wanted any kind of possible connections, no matter how skimpy, and they got it,”. The Sept. 11 commission, which found “no evidence” that contacts between the Iraqi government and Al Qaeda “ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship.”

The intelligence included a section that contended there were "Fundamental Problems With How (the Intelligence Community) Is Assessing Information. This created the impression that there was a problem with the wider intelligence community who did not endorse the links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq

Geneva Convention

Feith was the architect of the argument that the Bush administration used to absolve themselves from the constraints of the Geneva convention.

The argument was that Geneva didn’t apply at all to al-Qaeda fighters, because they weren’t part of a state and therefore couldn’t claim rights under a treaty that was binding only on states. Geneva did apply to the Taliban, but by Geneva’s own terms Taliban fighters weren’t entitled to P.O.W. status, because they hadn’t worn uniforms or insignia. That would still leave the safety net provided by the rules reflected in Common Article 3— but detainees could not rely on this either, on the theory that its provisions applied only to “armed conflict not of an international character,” which the administration interpreted to mean civil war. This was new. In reaching this conclusion, the Bush administration simply abandoned all legal and customary precedent that regards Common Article 3 as a minimal bill of rights for everyone

Affiliations

• Council on Foreign Relations - Member
• Energy Infrastructure Planning Group
• Office of Special Plans
• Project for the New American Century
• Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000 Member
• United States Committee for a Free Lebanon
• United States Institute of Peace - Former Director(2002)

Feith is described as having 'long-term ties to Likud'

Contact Information

• Website: http://www.dougfeith.com/
  

Resources and articles

Profiles

• Profile: Douglas Feith, RightWeb.
• Profile: Douglas Feith, NNBD.com.
• Profile: Douglas Feith, Cooperative Research.
• Profile: Douglas J. Feith, Israeli-Palestinian ProCon.org.
• Printable Biography of Douglas Feith, All American Speakers Bureau.
• Douglas J. Feith in the Wikipedia.
• DougFeith.com, a website associated with Feith, responding to the February 2007 Pentagon Inspector General's report about pre-war Iraq intelligence.

Articles by Douglas J. Feith

• "The Inner Logic of Israel's Negotations: Withdrawal Process, Not Peace Process," Middle East Forum / Middle East Quarterly, March 1996.
• Transcript: "The Global War on Terrorism," with Robert L. Galluci, Presider, at Council on Foreign Relations, November 13, 2003.
• Lecture: "Strategy and the Idea of Freedom," Heritage Foundation, November 24, 2003.
• Op-Ed: "Conventional Warfare," Wall Street Journal (AllAmericanPatriots.com), April 24, 2004.
• Transcript: Speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, February 17, 2005. (on asymmetrical sovereignty)
• "The Donald Rumsfeld I Know," Washington Post, November 12, 2006.
• "A Word for Chris Wallace," FrontPageMag.com, February 21, 2007.

External articles

1996

• "Israeli Settlements: Legitimate, Democratically Mandated, Vital to Israel's Security and, Therefore, in U.S. Interest," Center for Security Policy, December 17, 1996.

2001

• James J. Zogby, "A Dangerous Appointment: Profile of Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense under Bush," Middle East Info, April 18, 2001.

2003

• "Interview with Douglas Feith. Jonathan Holmes interviews Douglas Feith, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy," Four Corners/ABC News (Australia), February 21, 2003.
• Julian Borger, "The spies who pushed for war. ... on the shadow rightwing intelligence network set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force," The Guardian (UK), July 17, 2003.
• Jim Lobe, "The Crisis of Feith," Foreign Policy in Focus, November 7, 2003.
• Jim Lobe, "Loss of Feith in Douglas," Asia Times, November 7, 2003.
• Daniel Pipes, "Douglas Feith on 'War on Terror'," DanielPipes.org, November 13, 2003.
• "After Iraq. The plan to remake the Middle East," The New Yorker, November 17, 2003.
• Bill Moyers, "On The Insider Business Deals Between Shrub Administration Officials And Iraqi Reconstruction Companies," On Lisa Rein's Radar Blog, November 17, 2003.
• Stephen F. Hayes, "Case Closed. From the November 24, 2003 issue: The U.S. government's secret memo detailing cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," The Weekly Standard, November 22, 2003.

2004

• Dana Priest, "Pentagon Shadow Loses Some Mystique. Feith's Shops Did Not Usurp Intelligence Agencies on Iraq, Hill Probers Find," Washington Post, March 13, 2004. See comments by Juan Cole.
• James Risen, "How Pair's Finding on Terror Led To Clash on Shaping Intelligence" (Abstract), New York Times, April 28, 2004.
• Laura Rozen, "Stunning story on Chalabi," War and Piece, May 3, 2004.
• Jim Lobe, "Soon to Be Losing Feith?" Inter Press Service (Dissident Voice; Common Dreams), May 20, 2004: "Although it will take weeks, if not months, to sort out precisely who was responsible for what increasingly appears to have been the systemic abuse by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi detainees, it should be no surprise if Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith is found to have played an important role."
• Chris Suellentrop, "Douglas Feith. What has the Pentagon's third man done wrong? Everything," Slate, May 20, 2004.
• Michael C. Ruppert with Wayne Madsen, "COUP D'ETAT: The Real Reason Tenet and Pavitt Resigned from the CIA on June 3rd and 4th. Bush, Cheney Indictments in Plame Case Looming," From the Wilderness, June 8, 2004.
• Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., "Feith’s Fight. Allegations against the undersecretary are baseless and base," National Review Online, August 30, 2004.
• "Portrait of a neo-con," Interhemispheric Resource Center (Asia Times), September 24, 2004.
• Tom Barry, "Douglas Feith: Portrait of a Neoconservative," RightWeb, September 3, 2004; Antiwar.com, September 15, 2004.
• Julian Coman, "Fury over Pentagon cell that briefed White House on Iraq's 'imaginary' al-Qaeda links," The Telegraph (UK), October 7, 2004.
• Report of an Inquiry into the Alternative Analysis of the Issue of an Iraq-al Qaeda Relationship by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services Committee, October 21, 2004.

• Sen. Levin, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence releases a report on the role of the office of the Pentagon's number three official Douglas Feith in alleged extracurricular intelligence analysis and advocacy.

• "The Iraq Intel Scandal Unfolds," War and Piece (TomPaine.com), October 22, 2004.
• Brian Bender, "Senator Says Pentagon Unit Hyped Terror Tie," Boston Globe (Common Dreams), October 22, 2004.

2005

• News Release: "DoD Announces Departure of Undersecretary Douglas Feith," U.S. Department of Defense, January 26, 2005.
• Demetri Sevastopulo, "Neo-con Feith to quit defence policy post," Financial Times, January 26, 2005.
• Mark Mazzetti, "Contentious Defense Official to Depart," New York Times (truthout), January 27, 2005.
• Francis Harris, "Rumsfeld aide who planned war quits," The Telegraph (UK), January 28, 2005.
• Juan Cole, "Feith Resigns Under Pressure of Investigations," Informed Comment, January 28, 2005.
• Doug Gavel, "Feith Urges Forum Audience to Keep Faith in Democratic Surge," News from the Kennedy School [of Government], March 3, 2005.
• Javier C. Hernandez, "Feith's Speech Draws Hostile Reaction at IOP," The Harvard Crimson, March 4, 2005.
• Doug Gavel, "Douglas Feith: Democracy gains foothold in Middle East. Only time will tell if new institutions will flourish," The Harvard University Gazette, March 10, 2005.
• Ellen, "Cal Thomas and Douglas Feith's Fantasyland Version of Iraq," News Hounds, March 28, 2005.
• Jeffrey Goldberg, "A Little Learning. What Douglas Feith knew, and when he knew it," The New Yorker, May 10, 2005.
• Gary Leupp, "'What's the Answer to the Holocaust?' Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg," CounterPunch, May 12, 2005.
• Justin Raimondo, "Why Did Feith Resign? Could it have had something to do with the Larry Franklin spy scandal?" Antiwar.com, May 30, 2005.
• Brian, "Douglas Feith and Betar," Gorilla in the Room Blogspot, June 15, 2005.
• Harkavy, "Dual Disloyalty: Feith and the Occupations of Gaza and Iraq," The Bush Beat Blog/The Village Voice, August 9, 2005.
• Evelyn J. Pringle, "War Pays. Douglas Feith's Platinum Parachute," CounterPunch, September 9/11, 2005.
• Karen Kwiatkowski, "Thoughts on the Retirement of Douglas Feith," LewRockwell.com, September 21, 2005.
• Arnaud de Borchgrave, Commentary: "Dumb, But Smart Feith," UPI, October 24, 2005.

2006

• Larisa Alexandrovna, "Pentagon investigation of Iraq war hawk stalling Senate inquiry into pre-war Iraq intelligence," The Raw Story, January 30, 2006.
• Stephen Santulli, "Douglas Feith Hired as Visiting SFS Professor. Correction Appended," The Hoya, May 2, 2006.
• "Georgetown Faculty Object to Appointment of Iraq War Architect Douglas Feith as Professor in School of Foreign Service," Democracy Now!, May 21, 2006.
• Marty Kaplan, "Professor Stupidest," The Huffington Post, May 25, 2006.
• James Bamford, "Iran: The Next War," Rolling Stone, July 26, 2006.
• Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff, "Secret Proposals: Fighting Terror by Attacking ... South America?" Newsweek (MSNBC), August 9, 2006.
• "Neocon Middle Eastern Policy: Clean Break or Dirty War? Israel's Foreign Policy Directive to the United States," Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, August 11, 2006.
• Walter C. Uhler, "The Times Continues to Understate the Influence of Feith's 'Gestapo Office' in the Run-up to War," walter-c-uhler.com, December 3, 2006.

2007

• David S. Cloud and Mark Mazzetti, "Prewar Intelligence Unit at Pentagon Is Criticized," New York Times, February 9, 2007.
• Walter Pincus and R. Jeffrey Smith, "Report cites 'dubious' pre-war findings. Political views, not intelligence consensus, imbued White House case, watchdog says," Washington Post (San Francisco Chronicle), February 9, 2007.
• Julian E. Barnes, "Pentagon aide's prewar work faulted. A Defense report says the ex-official alleged links between Al Qaeda and Iraq that didn't reflect intelligence," Los Angeles Times, February 9, 2007.
• "Feith 'predisposed' to link Iraq, terror," UPI, February 9, 2007.
• Robert Burns, "Pentagon Says Pre-War Intel Not Illegal," Associated Press (ABC News), February 9, 2007.
• Tom Regan, "Pentagon: Prewar intel on Al Qaeda-Hussein link not illegal but 'dubious'. Critics call report 'damning,' but intel-wrangler Feith says he's glad he was 'exonerated'," Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 2007.
• Mark Thompson, "Feith Takes the Fall," TIME, February 9, 2007.
• "Douglas Feith Responds to Criticism," NPR, February 9, 2007.
• "VIDEO: Feith Stands By False Claim That Iraq Had Links To Al Qaeda," Think Progress, February 9, 2007.
• Don Davis, "Douglas Feith Explains the Al Qaeda - Saddam Link: Six Degrees of Separation," The Satirical Political Report, February 10, 2007.
• Transcript: Former Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith on 'FNS', Fox News, February 11, 2007.
• Editorial: "Vindicating Douglas Feith," New York Sun, February 12, 2007.
• Robert Scheer, "Before the Invasion, There Was Feith," Truthdig, February 13, 2007; The Nation, February 14, 2007.
• Marie Therese, "Douglas Feith: Is He the Next John Dean?" News Hounds, February 13, 2007.
• Karen Kwiatkowski, "The War Pimp," LewRockwell.com, February 14, 2007.
• SilentPatriot, "Daily Show: Douglas Feith Has Huge Balls," Crooks and Liars, February 14, 2007.
• Calvin Trillin, "Report by the Pentagon's Inspector General Concludes That Douglas Feith Cooked the Books on Pre-war Intelligence," The Nation, February 15, 2007 (March 5, 2007 issue).
• David Edwards and Josh Catone, "Chris Wallace smashes Feith's Iraq Qaeda claim," The Raw Story, February 18, 2007.
• Faiz Shakir, "True ‘Fair And Balanced’ Coverage: Wallace Calls Out Feith For Lying On Fox News," Think Progress, February 18, 2007.
• Benjamin Zycher, "Reporting for Spin. Carl Levin’s latest report ignores the facts on the ground to this day," National Review Online, February 21, 2007.
• Mario Loyola, "Feith on Trial. Facts don’t matter to Carl Levin," National Review Online, February 27, 2007.
• Athenae, "The Feith Defense Continues," First Draft, February 28, 2007.
• "Doug Feith's Stupidest Fucking Website on the Internet," Wonkette!, March 1, 2007.
• "Slides Used by Douglas Feith to Sell the Link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda," Scribd.com, April 5, 2007.
• Steve Inskeep, "Feith Takes Iraq Policy Debate to Georgetown," NPR, April 19, 2007.
• Brad Friedman, "Douglas Feith: There Were No Analysts Who Said Saddam Was Not a Threat. Has the Former DoD War Architect Ever Met Condi Rice or Colin Powell? Just Asking...," The Brad Blog, April 19, 2007.
• Nick Schwellenbach, "Feith's Earmark?" Project On Government Oversight Blog, April 25, 2007.
• "Iraq Misinformant Off the Hook," Adbusters Magazine, May/June 2007.
• "Feith Referenced Fake Company As Evidence Of Pre-War Ties Between Iraq And Bin Laden," Think Progress, May 24, 2007.
• "The Architects of War: Where Are They Now?" Think Progress, July 2007.