Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

"Doug Feith, of course, is without question, one of the most brilliant individuals in government. He is – he's just a rare talent. And from my standpoint, working with him is always interesting. He's been one of the really the intellectual leaders in the administration in defense policy aspects of our work here." ^[1]

When Feith left the Defense Department in 2005, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld highlighted the following accomplishments: ^[2]

• A plan to revamp America's Global Defense Posture – move troops, move families, move contractors, and facilities from where they were at the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War to where they’re needed and usable
• A NATO Response Force to counter threats and to deal with crises
• New security relationships in Central Asia and South Asia;
• Helping to fashion a new National Security Defense Strategy that helps guide DoD in planning assumptions for the war on terrorism as well as other responsibilities.
• The training and equipping of foreign forces;
• The creation of an Office of Post-conflict Reconstruction in the Department of State; and
• The Global Peace Operations Initiative.

In his speech, Rumsfeld said:

Years from now, unfortunately it may be many years, accurate accounts of what's taking place these past four years will be written and it will show that Doug Feith has performed his duties with great dedication, with impressive skill and with remarkable vision during this perilous and indeed momentous period in the life of our country.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Ret.) Air Force General Richard Myers

Richard Myers credited Feith with a "great perspective" and "great respect for the military."

In planning the war with Iraq, Feith "looked at implications of various actions that others might not think about", Myers said. "Doug is very bright and brings a very good strategic view to the table. He has solved some real problems." ^[3]

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Peter Pace

United States Marine Corps General Peter Pace, now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked closely with Feith, co-chairing with him the Defense Department's Campaign Planning Committee (CAPCOM).

At Feith's farewell-from-government ceremony on August 8, 2005, Pace as then vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said:

Doug Feith is a patriot. It irritates me, not that anyone would question his thoughts or his policies – that is absolutely fair game – but that anyone would question his loyalty or his motives. I have watched this man for four years. He cares only about what is best for the United States. He works hard to understand as much as he can about the policy arena, and he works hard to articulate what he believes to be true. ^[4]

The New Yorker May 9, 2005 (p. 36) interviewed Pace about Franks' criticism [see below] and reported: "Pace, who calls Feith a 'true American patriot,' said he did not understand Franks' attack. 'This is not directed at any individual,' Pace said, 'but the less secure an individual is in his thought processes and in his own capacities, the more prone they were to be intimidated by Doug, because he's so smart.'" Pace believes "Early on, [Feith] didn’t realize that the way he presented his positions, the way he was being perceived, put him in a bit of a hole. But he changed his ways."

The same article reported on Rumsfeld's reaction to Franks:

Feith's most prominent defender is Rumsfeld, who told me that Feith is "one of the brightest people you or I will ever come across. He's diligent, very well read, and insightful." Donald Rumsfeld, Feith's former boss, is also General Pace's superior, and appointed both Feith and Pace to their posts. Donald Rumsfeld explained Feith's trouble with Franks this way: "If you're a combatant commander and you're in the area of operations and you're hearing from people in Washington, what you're hearing is frequently not on point to what you're worrying about at the moment, just as the reverse is also true'" ^[5]

National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley

In a letter to Feith on the day of his resignation from government, August 8, 2005, Stephen Hadley wrote: ^[6]

Your efforts in developing the war on terrorism strategy, the global defense posture, the President's June 24, 2002, Middle East speech, and moving forward the president's agenda on advancing freedom and democracy are among your many significant accomplishments.

For the last four years, you and your fine staff have provided outstanding support to Secretary Rumsfeld and the President.

Your intellectual leadership within the interagency has helped us meet the challenges that face our nation at this critical time. But equally important, you have provided an example of honesty, decency, and integrity that have made you a valued colleague and friend to us all.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

In Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack, then- United States Secretary of State Colin Powell called Feith's operation at the Pentagon the " Gestapo" office, alleging that it amounted to a separate, unchecked governing authority within the Pentagon. ^[1]

Soon after publication of the book, Powell said:

I don't recall saying that, but it is a terrible term to use and it is out of place, completely out of place. I have known Doug Feith for many years. We have agreed on many issues and disagreed on some. And I just regret that that has gotten into the literature and become a fact. ^[2]

An unnamed Bush administration official said to reporters from Newsday that "Secretary of State Colin Powell complained directly to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld several days ago about Feith's policy shop conducting missions that countered US policy." ^[3]

Former Director of the CIA, George Tenet

The chapter "No Authority, Direction, or Control" of George Tenet's memoir deals with the prewar government debate about alleged connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda. According to the Washington Post, Tenet's memoir paints an "unflattering portrait of Feith as a man eager to manipulate intelligence to push the country to war." ^[4] Tenet refers to Feith's office as "Team Feith", writing that he saw their criticisms about the CIA's Iraq-al Qaeda work as "complete crap." He added that "when the Pentagon inspector general issued a report in February 2007 calling some of Feith's efforts 'inappropriate', Feith shot back. He said peddling his alternative intelligence was simply an exercise in 'good government.' Nonsense (Tenet wrote). This was an example of bad government" (Tenet, page 348).

Feith reviewed Tenet's memoir and responded to the allegations about his work in the Wall Street Journal on May 4. ^[5] On Tenet's account of the bureaucratic differences over Iraq-al Qaeda issues, Feith writes: "Mr. Tenet devotes a chapter to the matter of Iraq and al Qaeda, giving it the title: 'No Authority, Direction or Control.' The phrase implies that we argued that Saddam exercised such powers – authority, direction and control – over al Qaeda. We made no such argument. Rather we said that the CIA's analysts were not giving serious, professional attention to information about ties between Iraq and al Qaeda. The CIA's assessments were incomplete, nonrigorous and shaped around the dubious assumption that secular Iraqi Baathists would be unwilling to cooperate with al Qaeda religious fanatics, even when they shared strategic interests. This assumption was disproved when Baathists and jihadists became allies against us in the post-Saddam insurgency, but before the war it was the foundation of much CIA analysis."

Former Commander Coalition Forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks (USA Ret)

Before the war in Iraq, the Iraqi National Congress proposed recruiting a brigade of Free Iraqi Forces to enter Iraq with the Americans. Feith supported the idea behind the project. United States Army General Tommy Franks did not, as reported in the book Cobra II: "Franks remained unenthusiastic, to say the least. After a briefing from [Feith's aide Bill] Luti on his pet project, Franks turned to Feith in a Pentagon corridor, letting him know where he stood: 'I don't have time for this fucking bullshit,' Franks exclaimed." ^[6]

Franks, according to Plan of Attack, says of Feith: "I have to deal with the fucking stupidest guy on the planet almost every day." (p.281). ^{[7] [8]} In his autobiography, American Soldier, Franks describes a conversation with his subordinates who were upset with Rumsfeld, Feith and Paul Wolfowitz; Franks tells them, "Here's the deal, guys. I know OSD - Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith - are demanding a lot. But they are not the enemy. Don't start thinking good guys-bad guys. We're all on the same side." They could see I was serious. "I'll worry about OSD, all of them - including Doug Feith, who's getting a reputation around here as the dumbest fucking guy on the planet", I continued. "Your job is to make me feel warm and fuzzy. Look, we're all professionals. Let's earn our pay." ^[9]

On the April 14, 2006 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews, Franks changed his assessment of Feith:

MATTHEWS: What did you think on a scale of one to 10 of the military expertise, of the civilians surrounding Secretary Rumsfeld, the people like Wolfowitz and Feith? How would you on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put their military savvy?

FRANKS: I would put the dipstick at oh — with a reasonable degree of understanding, I would put Doug Feith in a category as a brilliant man with some military understanding, but both of these gentlemen were apt to think out of the box. And candidly, Chris, for all I know, maybe that's what Don Rumsfeld wanted them to do.

MATTHEWS: Were they ideologues or were they analysts?

FRANKS: In my personal [opinion], they were analysts. Now, that does not imply that I'm making some statement that they were not ideologues, maybe so, but that's not the way that I saw them. ^[10]

Former Coalition Provisional Authority Official, Lieutenant General Jay Garner (USA Ret)

The former Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for the Coalition Provisional Authority, General Jay Garner, reported to Feith for five months following the invasion of Iraq. As quoted in Thomas E. Ricks's book Fiasco, Garner said of Feith: "I think he's incredibly dangerous. He's a smart guy whose electrons aren't connected, so he arc lights all the time. He can't organize anything."

Former CENTCOM Deputy Commander, Lieutenant General Michael DeLong (USMC Ret)

In an interview with PBS on February 14, 2006, General Michael DeLong was asked about the information coming from Feith's office in the lead-up to the Iraq war. He replied:

Feith wasn't somebody we enjoyed working with, and to go much further than that would probably not be a good thing. To be honest, we blew him off lots of times. Told the secretary that he's full of baloney, his people working for him are full of baloney. It was a real distraction for us, because he was the number three guy in the Department of Defense. ^[11]

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