posted on July 9, 2004 01:20:12 PM new
Report: War Rationale Based on CIA Error
Updated 3:10 PM ET July 9, 2004
By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER
WASHINGTON (AP) - The key U.S. assertions leading to the 2003 invasion of Iraq _ that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was working to make nuclear weapons _ were wrong and based on false or overstated CIA analyses, a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report asserted Friday.
Sen. Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the committee, told reporters that assessments that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and could make a nuclear weapon by the end of the decade were wrong.
"As the report will show, they were also unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available intelligence," he said.
"This was a global intelligence failure."
Rockefeller said: "Tragically, the intelligence failures set forth in this report will affect our national security for generations to come. Our credibility is diminished. Our standing in the world has never been lower. We have fostered a deep hatred of Americans in the Muslim world, and that will grow. As a direct consequence, our nation is more vulnerable today than ever before."
posted on July 9, 2004 02:02:52 PM new
Just add it to clinton's list of intelligence failures. Cut the CIA budget on human inteligence sources to rely more on elint. And by the way clinton appointed Tenant to the position of head of the CIA.
Tenet said his resignation will be effective July 11 -- the seventh anniversary of his 1997 appointment by President Clinton
"The natural family is a man and woman bound in a lifelong covenant of marriage for the purposes of:
*the continuation of the human species,
*the rearing of children,
*the regulation of sexuality,
*the provision of mutual support and protection,
*the creation of an altruistic domestic economy, and
*the maintenance of bonds between the generations."
posted on July 9, 2004 02:40:28 PM new
Here we go with Clinton again.
crowfarm
They aren't saying anything that those of us with intelligence didn't already know. But, as you can see, the right is now going to blame it all on Clinton.
posted on July 9, 2004 02:43:59 PM new
Cheryl, I know this was widely known but this report just came out today...kinda an official pronouncement and a BI-PARTISAN one!
posted on July 9, 2004 03:15:23 PM new
The report repeatedly blasts departing CIA Director Tenet, accusing him of skewing advice to top policy-makers with the CIA's view and elbowing out dissenting views from other intelligence agencies overseen by the State or Defense departments. It faulted Tenet for not personally reviewing Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, which contained since-discredited references to Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium in Africa.
Bush has been agonizing over whether he will nominate a successor for Tenet before the November election. Asked earlier this week whether he planned to wait until after the election to name Tenet's replacement, the president said: "I haven't made up my mind on the nomination process."
Intelligence analysts worked from the assumption that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons and was seeking to make more, as well as trying to revive a nuclear weapons program. Instead, investigations after the Iraq invasion have shown that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had no nuclear weapons program and no biological weapons, and only small amounts of chemical weapons have been found.
Analysts ignored or discounted conflicting information because of their assumptions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the report said.
"This 'group think' dynamic led Intelligence Community analysts, collectors and managers to both interpret ambiguous evidence as conclusively indicative of a WMD program as well as ignore or minimize evidence that Iraq did not have active and expanding weapons of mass destruction programs," the report concluded.
Such assumptions also led analysts to inflate snippets of questionable information into broad declarations that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, the report said.
For example, speculation that the presence of one specialized truck could mean an effort to transfer chemical weapons was puffed up into a conclusion that Iraq was actively making chemical weapons, the report said.
Analysts also concluded that Iraq had a mobile biological weapons program based mainly on the since-discredited claims of one Iraqi defector code-named "Curve Ball," it said. American agents did not have direct access to Curve Ball or his debriefers, but the source's information was expanded into the conclusion that Iraq had an advanced and active biological weapons program, the report said.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the report showed that some material Secretary of State Colin Powell used to try to induce the United Nations to support war with Iraq was flawed.
But, Boucher said, "The basic case was a correct one. Iraq wanted weapons of mass destruction." He said there was no reason for Powell to apologize for his U.N. presentation.
""
Bear and other Clinton lover's, this was a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee a bi-partisan group and Clinton's name was never mentioned.
I guess I worded that poorly. What I meant was the media, when publishing these reports by the "committee", isn't telling us anything that an intelligent person hadn't already figured out. We didn't need a committee to tell us. Not that you were insulting my intelligence. Now that I re-read what I said, that's what it sounds like I meant.
Oh, brother. I think I just complicated a simple statement. Well, it is Friday!
posted on July 9, 2004 06:50:55 PM new
Of course it's Clinton's fault again. The bad old boogey-man
___________________________________
If the world made sense, men would ride sidesaddle.
