Colonel Kwiatkowski during an interview in Honour Betrayed

Karen U. Kwiatkowski is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force whose assignments included duties as a Pentagon desk officer and in a variety of roles for the National Security Agency. Since retiring, she has become a noted critic of the U.S. government's involvement in Iraq. Kwiatkowski is primarily known for her insider essays that denounce a corrupting political influence on the course of military intelligence leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. She has said that she was the anonymous source used by Seymour Hersh and Warren Strobel in their respective exposés of pre-war intelligence. The Republican-controlled Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dismissed her allegations as baseless in its report on pre-war intelligence. [1] (pp. 282-283). This work is copyrighted. ... This work is copyrighted. ... The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerospace branch of the United States armed forces. ... A pre-9/11 view of The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... NSA seal The National Security Agency / Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is believed to be the largest United States government intelligence agency. ... Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int. ... Combatants Coalition Forces (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland) Iraq Commanders Tommy Franks Saddam Hussein Strength 263,000 375,000 The 2003 invasion of Iraq, termed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the US administration, began on March 20. ... Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron (Sy) Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and author based in New York City. ...

Colonel Kwiatkowski has an MA in Government from Harvard and a MS in Science Management from the University of Alaska. She has a Ph.D. in World Politics from Catholic University; her thesis was on overt and covert war in Angola, titled A Case Study of the Implementation of the Reagan Doctrine. She has also published two books about U.S. policy towards Africa: African Crisis Response Initiative: Past Present and Future (US Army Peacekeeping Institute, 2000) and Expeditionary Air Operations in Africa: Challenges and Solutions (Air University Press, 2001).[2] Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... The University of Alaska is a Land-Grant, Sea-Grant, and Space Grant university founded in 1922 in Fairbanks, Alaska. ... The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (abbreviated CUA), located in Washington, DC, is unique as the national university of the Catholic Church and as the only higher education institution founded by the U.S. bishops. ...

Career

Raised in western North Carolina, Kwiatkowski began her military career in 1978 as a second lieutenant. She served at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, providing logistical support to missions along the Chinese and Russian coasts. She served in Spain and Italy, and was then assigned to the National Security Agency (NSA), eventually becoming a speechwriter for the agency's director. After leaving the NSA in 1998, she became an analyst on sub-Saharan Africa policy for the Pentagon. Karen was in her office in the Pentagon when it was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. From May, 2002 to February, 2003, she served in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia directorate (NESA).[3] While at NESA, she wrote a series of anonymous articles, Insider Notes from the Pentagon, that appeared on the website of David Hackworth.[4] Official language(s) English Capital Largest city Raleigh Charlotte Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Second Lieutenant is the lowest commissioned rank in many armed forces. ... Eielson Air Force Base is located in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska. ... Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  Ranked 1st  - Total 663,267 sq. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Kwiatkowski left NESA in February, 2003 and retired from the Air Force the following month. In April, 2003, she began writing a series of articles for the libertarian website LewRockwell.com. In June of that year, she published an article in the Ohio Beacon Journal, "Career Officer Does Eye-Opening Stint Inside Pentagon" [5], which attracted additional notice. Since February, 2004, she has written a biweekly column, "Without Reservations", for the website MilitaryWeek. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the classical liberal individualist philosophy that strongly emphasizes private property rights conjoined with civil liberties. ... Header image from LewRockwell. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... MilitaryWeek. ...

Her most comprehensive writings on the subject of the corrupting influence of the Pentagon on intelligence analysis leading up to the Iraq War appeared in a series of articles in The American Conservative magazine in December, 2003 and in a March, 2004 article on Salon.com. In the latter piece, titled "The New Pentagon Papers", she wrote: The American Conservative (TAC) is a biweekly magazine founded by Scott McConnell, Pat Buchanan, and Taki Theodoracopulos, and edited by McConnell. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Screenshot of Salon. ...

I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president. Neoconservatism describes several distinct political ideologies which are considered new forms of conservatism. ... The Office of Special Plans, which existed from September, 2002, to June, 2003, was a Pentagon unit created by Donald Rumsfeld and led by Douglas Feith, dealing with intelligence on Iraq. ... Congress in Joint Session. ... The Executive Office of the President (EOP) consists of the immediate staff of the President of the United States, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the President. ...

Kwiatkowski exposed how a clique of officers led by retired Navy Captain Bill Luti, assistant secretary of defense for NESA, and former aide to Dick Cheney when the latter was Secretary of Defense, took control of military intelligence, and how the "Office of Special Plans" (OSP) grew and eventually turned into a censorship and disinformation organism controlling the NESA.[6] The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for conducting naval operations around the globe. ... Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. ... Richard Bruce Dick Cheney (born January 30, 1941) is the 46th Vice President of the United States, serving under President George W. Bush. ... Seal of the United States Department of Defense The United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense, concerned with the armed services and The Secretary is appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate, and is a member of the Cabinet. ... The Office of Special Plans, which existed from September, 2002, to June, 2003, was a Pentagon unit created by Donald Rumsfeld and led by Douglas Feith, dealing with intelligence on Iraq. ...

Following the American Conservative and Salon articles, Kwiatkowski began to receive criticism from several conservative sources that supported President Bush's policies. Michael Rubin of the National Review argued that she had exaggerated her knowledge of the OSP's workings and that she had ties to Lyndon LaRouche[7]. Their criticisms were later backed by the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which found that Kwiatkowski could not cite a single example to support her claims [8] (pp. 282-283). Republican U.S. Senator John Kyl criticized her in a speech on the Senate floor [9]. On a Fox News program, host John Gibson and former Republican National Committee communications director Clifford May described her as an anarchist[10]. Kwiatkowski responded, saying, among other points, that she had never supported or dealt with LaRouche [11]. George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States and a former governor of Texas. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... National Review (NR) is a conservative/libertarian political magazine founded by author William F. Buckley Jr. ... Defunct California Proposition 64 North American Labour Party Party for the Commonwealth of Canada Parti pour la république du Canada U.S. Labor Party Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. ... John Henry Kyl (May 9, 1919 - December 23, 2002), was a United States politician from Iowa. ... Fox News Channels slogan is We Report, You Decide The Fox News Channel is a U.S. cable and satellite news channel. ... John Gibson John Gibson is a conservative American commentator and host of the weekday show The Big Story on FOX News since 2000. ... Bush/Cheney, 2004 Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman is the current Chairman of the RNC. The Republican National Committee (RNC) provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. ... Clifford May is the president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Chairman of the Policy Committee of the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD). ... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ...

In addition to her writings, Colonel Kwiatkowski has appeared as a commentator in the documentaries Hijacking Catastrophe and Honor Betrayed. She has been a registered member of the U.S. Libertarian Party since 1994 and spoke at the party's national convention in 2004.[12] She currently lives with her family in the Shenandoah Valley and works part-time as a farmer. Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire is a documentary narrated by Julian Bond and directed by Jeremy Earp and Sut Jhally. ... The Libertarian Party is a United States political party created in 1971. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... The Libertarian National Convention is held every two years by the United States Libertarian Party to choose members of the Libertarian National Committee, and to conduct other party business. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Canoeing on the Shenandoah River near Winchester, VA. The Shenandoah Valley region of western Virginia, from Winchester to Staunton, is bounded by the Blue Ridge mountains to the East and the Allegheny mountains to the West. ...

Kwiatkowski has been widely seen as an attractive Libertarian presidential candidate [13] [14], especially given her military background and outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. In April 2006, Kwiatkowski entered the race for the Libertarian Party's 2008 vice-presidential nomination (the Libertarian Party chooses presidential and vice-presidential nominees on separate ballot, and campaigns for the two positions are often independent), with the endorsement of George Phillies, candidate for the Libertarian presidential nomination. [15] [16] Dick Cheney 46th and current Vice President (2001- ) The Vice President of the United States is the second-highest executive official of the United States government, the person who is a heartbeat from the presidency. ... George Phillies (born 23 July 1947) is a Libertarian Party activist and professor of physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. ...

Quotations

• "I came to share with many NESA colleagues a kind of unease, a sense that something was awry. What seemed out of place was the strong and open pro-Israel and anti-Arab orientation in an ostensibly apolitical policy-generation staff within the Pentagon" [17]

• "Why we fight? I think we fight 'cause too many people are not standing up, saying 'I'm not doing this any more.'"

• "If you join the United States military now, you are not defending the United States of America; you are helping certain policy-makers pursue an imperial agenda."

• "At the end of the summer of 2002, new space had been found upstairs on the fifth floor for an "expanded Iraq desk." It would be called the Office of Special Plans. We were instructed at a staff meeting that this office was not to be discussed or explained, and if people in the Joint Staff, among others, asked, we were to offer no comment. We were also told that one of the products of this office would be talking points that all desk officers would use verbatim in the preparation of their background documents."

• "By August, only the Pollyannas at the Pentagon felt that the decision to invade Iraq, storm Baghdad, and take over the place (or give it to Ahmad Chalabi) was reversible."

• ""It wasn't intelligence -- it was propaganda. They'd take a little bit of intelligence, cherry-pick it, make it sound much more exciting, usually by taking it out of context, often by juxtaposition of two pieces of information that don't belong together." [18]

• "Interestingly, the Downing Street Memo is actually being reported by CNN and FOX News. It is being discussed in the major papers. Congress intends to examine it. Hearing it mentioned on the half hour by CNN Headline News has not dispossessed me of the belief that a state suicide is impossible. Thus, my gentle thoughts are increasingly turning to murder. Murder of the state. In self-defense, of course!"[19]

On the Office of Special Plans: The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ) are a large and heterogeneous ethnic group found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Talking points are small arguments or phrases that political strategists issue to representatives or supporters of a party or administration to be used over and over again in speeches, talk show appearances and debates. ... Pollyanna is a 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter that has become a classic of childrens literature. ... Location of Baghdad within Iraq Baghdad (Arabic: ‎ translit: , Kurdish: Bexda, from Persian Baagh-daad or Bag-Da-Du meaning “Garden of God” [1]) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi1 (Arabic: احمد الجلبي) (born October 30, 1944) is part of a three-man executive council for the umbrella Iraqi opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), created in 1992 for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. ... The Office of Special Plans, which existed from September, 2002, to June, 2003, was a Pentagon unit created by Donald Rumsfeld and led by Douglas Feith, dealing with intelligence on Iraq. ...

• "It's a propaganda office."

Books

• African Crisis Response Initiative: Past Present and Future (US Army Peacekeeping Institute, 2000)
• Expeditionary Air Operations in Africa: Challenges and Solutions (Air University Press, 2001)

This article is about the year 2000. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

Anonymous essays 2002-2003

• Deep Throat Returns: Insider Notes from The Pentagon, Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski's anonymous essays while still at the Pentagon. (Anonymous essays number 1 to 39)
• Insider Notes from The Pentagon: Ready to go to war?, January 31, 2003. (Anonymous essay number 40)
• Insider Notes from The Pentagon: Fear of God, February 3, 2003. (No.41)
• Insider Notes from The Pentagon: Life is Tough All Over, February 8, 2003. (No.42)
• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love CBW, March 10, 2003. (No.47)
• The Souffle has Fallen, March 29, 2003. (No.49)
• Insider Notes from The Pentagon: Those Awful Turks, May 28, 2003. (No.51)

External links

• Karen Kwiatkowski, entry on SourceWatch
• Center for Cooperative Research Profile of Karen Kwiatkowski
• The New Pentagon Papers, an article by Kwiatkowski that appeared on Salon.Com
• Archive of articles by Karen Kwiatkowski on LewRockwell.Com
• List of articles on militaryweek.com
• "Conscientious Objector", an article by Kwiatkowski, originally appearing in The American Conservative
• Honor Betrayed page on veteransforpeace.org
• The Pentagon Insider Who Spread Rumors that Sounded Anti-Semitic by Edwin Black appearing on History News Network
• Web of Conspiracies by Michael Rubin appearing on National Review Online
• Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire
• Democracy Now, September 10, 2004 Hijacking Catastrophe
• Democracy Now, October 22, 2004 The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
• Karen Kwiatkowski's 2002-2003 archives Deep Throat Returns: Insider Notes from The Pentagon
• Knight Ridder News, July 31, 2003 Career Officer Does Eye-Opening Stint Inside Pentagon
• Inter Press Service, August 5, 2003 War Critics Zero In on Pentagon Office
• Inter Press Service, August 7, 2003 Pentagon Office Home to Neo-Con Network
• If Americans Knew, December 1, 2003 Israelis walked through the Pentagon to Feith's office like they owned the place
• Interhemispheric Resource Center, February 12, 2004 Office of Special Plans
• Inter Press Service, October 28, 2005 A Formidable Hawk Goes Down
• Mother Jones, January 2004 The Lie Factory
• Democracy Now, December 18, 2003 The Lie Factory - Neocons & the OSP Pushed Disinformation and Bogus Intelligence
• In These Times, April 12, 2004 Outside the Inside
• In These Times, October 24, 2004 The Bush team’s foreign policy disregarded reality and ignored actuality
• Democracy Now, August 8, 2003 Ex-Pentagon Official Suggests Bush Administration Should Face War Crimes Tribunal
• Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski, November 2, 2003 Pentagon Whistle Blower
• Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski, May 22, 2004 An Insider's Look at the March to War
• Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski, September 21, 2004 Timothy McSweeney
• Interview with Karen Kwiatkowski, June 16, 2005 Daily Kos
• Ten questions and answers, with Karen Kwiatkowski, October 25, 2005 Unknown News
• Daily Kos Karen Kwiatkowski
• After Downing Street, June 16, 2005 Written Testimony of Karen Kwiatkowski
• Karen Kwiatkowski's video interview California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
• Democracy Now, June 29, 2005 Former Pentagon Insider Blasts Bush's Iraq Speech and Repeated References to 9/11
• Karen Kwiatkowski's audio interviews The Charles Goyette Show
• Karen Kwiatkowski's audio interviews The Weekend Interview Show with Scott Horton
• Brian Lamb. Karen discusses her service in the Air Force, Pentagon & more C-SPAN, April 2, 2006.
• Karen Kwiatkowski's radio show American Forum