Appeal For Truth Telling

By Ray McGovern, TomPaine.com. Posted September 15, 2004.

There are some hopeful signs that government and military officials—active as well as retired—are beginning to recognize they have a duty to their fellow citizens to inform them of decisions that can seriously impact the country’s national security. Last week, a group we call "The Truth-Telling Coalition" issued a formal Appeal to Current Government Officials to reflect on whether they best serve the country by continuing to keep silent about major mistakes and abuses or by speaking out. We are particularly concerned that officials disclose the truth about the war on Iraq—because to conceal information could likely lead to more death and destruction. Just a few days after we issued our appeal, we were encouraged to learn that a serving U.S. Marine general decided to share openly with the press his chagrin at the flip-flopping orders he received to attack Fallujah—and then abruptly stop after the attack was under way.

After turning over command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq on Sunday, Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway did not let a day pass before excoriating higher officials for misguided and counterproductive orders to attack the Iraqi Sunni stronghold of Fallujah after the killing of four U.S. security contractors.

Conway did not repeat the damaging criticism of UN envoy in Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, and many others that the attack amounted to "collective punishment" of Fallujah residents. The Marine general did observe that the attack "certainly increased the level of animosity that existed." Conway stressed the stupidity of ordering such an attack, in which six Marines were killed and six more wounded, and then being told to halt after just three days.

A handful of former Iraqi generals then formed the "Fallujah Brigade" and was put in charge of the city. The 800 AK-47 assault weapons, 27 pick-up trucks and 50 radios that the Marines gave this "Brigade" wound up in the hands of the resistance, which remains in control of Fallujah, and have been used against the Marines in the environs of the city.

Asked who issued the order to attack and then halt, Conway would only say that he had advised against the attack in the first place but that "We follow our orders." According to The Washington Post, some senior officials in Iraq have said the command originated in the White House.

Think about it. How rare is it that an active-duty Marine lieutenant general will speak out in such fashion? Whether or not Conway had already heard of last Thursday's appeal to government officials for "unauthorized truth-telling," Conway 's candor is surely a hopeful sign that the campaign by the newly established Truth-Telling Coalition is off to a promising start.

At a press conference in Washington, D.C., Thursday morning, the Coalition launched its drive to encourage more, well . . . courage among those in government ranks, and challenged them to "give higher allegiance to the Constitution, the sovereign public and the young men and women put in harm's way" than to their bosses, agencies and careers. Dan Ellsberg's Truth-Telling Project, the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Project on Government Oversight are part of the Coalition.

Fleshing out their appeal, the Coalition listed 12 documents, including Army staff studies supporting Gen. Eric Shinseki's estimate before the war that several hundred thousand troops would be needed.

The Truth-Telling Coalition Appeal and the list of documents appear below.

The Truth-Telling Coalition Appeal

TO: Current Government Officials

FROM: Concerned Alumni

SUBJECT: Truth

It is time for unauthorized truth-telling.

Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts—for example, the facts that have been wrongly concealed about the ongoing war in Iraq: the real reasons behind it, the prospective costs in blood and treasure, and the setback it has dealt to efforts to stem terrorism. Administration deception and cover-up on these vital matters has so far been all too successful in misleading the public.

Many Americans are too young to remember Vietnam. Then, as now, senior government officials did not tell the American people the truth. Now, as then, insiders who know better have kept their silence as the country was misled into the most serious foreign policy disaster since Vietnam.

Some of you have documentation of wrongly concealed facts and analyses that—if brought to light—would impact heavily on public debate regarding crucial matters of national security, both foreign and domestic. We urge you to provide that information now, both to Congress and, through the media, to the public.

Thanks to our First Amendment, there is in America no broad Official Secrets Act, nor even a statutory basis for the classification system. Only very rarely would it be appropriate to reveal information of the three types whose disclosure has been expressly criminalized by Congress: communications intelligence, nuclear data and the identity of US intelligence operatives. However, this administration has stretched existing criminal laws to cover other disclosures in ways never contemplated by Congress.

There is a growing network of support for whistleblowers. In particular, for anyone who wishes to know the legal implications of disclosures they may be contemplating, the ACLU stands ready to provide pro bono legal counsel, with lawyer-client privilege. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) will offer advice on whistleblowing, dissemination and relations with the media.

Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran CIA analyst, is a member of the steering group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a member of the Truth-Telling Coalition.

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