Last week the Los Angeles Times reported on a stunning classified document from the State Department. It was titled “Iraq, the Middle East, and Change: No Dominoes.” It debunked the Bush Administration’s claim that a U.S. attack and occupation of Iraq would lead to a democratic Iraq, and then help bring democracy to much of the Middle East. The report was top secret and was never supposed to be seen by the public. The Bush administration obviously had little incentive to leak the report ­ which challenged one of the stated goals of the war. And today the world would not know about the report if officials had not secretly leaked the document to reporters.

If a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity has its way, more officials within the Intelligence community will soon begin leaking documents that shows the Bush administration is slanting intelligence to support its case for war with Iraq.

The group was formed two months ago by five CIA veterans. Currently the group consists of 25 members from the entire defense community (including the DIA, CIA, Army Intelligence, and the State Department Intelligence Group).

• Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran who briefed top Reagan administration security officials before retiring in 1990. He is one of the founders of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
• Daniel Ellsberg, calling in from a protest in Washington, D.C. Ellsberg is the former Pentagon official who leaked a 7,000-page top secret study of US decision-making in Vietnam, which later became known as the Pentagon Papers. He is author of Secrets: a Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.

Related links:

• Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
• Daniel Ellsberg