Committee for the Liberation of Iraq

The Iraq War, Brought to You by Your Friends at Lockheed Martin

Remember the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq? Much like Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a front group established by Hill Knowlton before the first Gulf War, it was a made-to-order pressure group formed for the sole purpose of building support -- and providing a rationale -- for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. I'd long since forgotten about the organization -- which was supported by such neocon luminaries as James Woolsey, Richard Perle, and William Kristol and quietly disbanded after the invasion -- until I read the interesting investigative piece in the current issue of Playboy (yes, Playboy) that Liz references below. Titled "Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” the article boldly bills itself as “the story of how Lockheed's interests -- as opposed to those of the American Citizenry -- set the course of U.S. Policy After 9/11.”

According to the article, in November 2002 Stephen Hadley, then the deputy national security advisor, had a meeting with a Lockheed official named Bruce Jackson, telling him that the U.S. was "going to war" but "struggling with a rationale." Reportedly, Hadley then asked Jackson to “set up something like the Committee on Nato” -- referring to another group previously formed by Jackson -- to fill this void. The result was the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.

Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Stephen J. Hadley "they were going to war and were struggling with a rationale"to justify it.

The New York Times put it in a 1997 article, "at night Bruce Jackson is president of the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO, giving intimate dinners for senators and foreign officials. By day, he is director of strategic planning for Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world's biggest weapons maker."

The war on terrorism is a product, a very faulty product. War produces .... nothing good.

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