Bush Lied, People Died
by KevinJune 5th, 2008
From TPM, the executive summary of the Senate report on the usage of intel in the lead up to the Iraq war:
–Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa’ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa’ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.
–Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.
–Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.
–Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq’s chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community’s uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.
–The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.
–The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.
They lied about everything, it seems. They wanted their war and they lied ot the American public in an attempt to bully and frighten people to get it.
Categories: General |
Was all this vaulted intelligence by the same agencies that completely screwed up the WMD intelligence?
What’s your point, Morris? Are you arguing that because the intelligence agencies had been wrong in the past, it’s okay to lie about what they were saying?
And aside from that, your comment betrays a tremendous ignorance of what the intelligence community actually believed (as opposed to what we were told they believed) at the time.
It was a question, not a comment. Why not just answer the question instead of getting your panties in a wad?
Zap.
Pow!
And by the way, what’s “vaulted intelligence?”
In any case is, the CIA had the WMD intelligence mostly right. Most of what we (and the UN) were fed was dated and questionable intelligence in response to the administration repeatedly asking the CIA to tell them what they wanted to hear, instead of what was true. In fact, Cheney was so upset with what the CIA was telling them about the non-threat posed by Iraq, he set up his own separate intelligence group inside the pentagon whose job it was to gin up evidence to make the case they wanted to make, true or not.
There, I’ve answered your question. Not that it will do any good…
Tgirsch, Morris exhibits vaulted intelligence frequently. If only he could recall the combination to the lock…
“what’s “vaulted intelligence?””
That’s your opinion of your intelligence.
BTW, when did you start making a big deal of typos?
“administration repeatedly asking the CIA to tell them what they wanted to hear, instead of what was true.”
Your opinion doesn’t amount to facts.
“he set up his own separate intelligence group inside the pentagon whose job it was to gin up evidence to make the case they wanted to make, true or not.”
You’ll believe anything. Bush is the second best president of my lifetime and Cheney is the best VP of my lifetime. Your stating of your hatred as fact is pathetic.
Your opinion doesn’t amount to facts.
It’s not my opinion. It’s the opinion of lots of current and former CIA analysts.
You’ll believe anything.
No, but when a whole lot of people in a position to know corroborate something, I’m willing to listen and take it seriously. Besides which, I don’t think anyone even denies that Cheney set up his own intelligence organization because he didn’t like what the CIA was giving him. I suggest you go educate yourself before you reflexively deny anything that you perceive as dimming the halos of your beloved leaders.
Contrary to what you might think, I don’t make this stuff up, and it’s not some “liberal” conspiracy. It’s not a partisan issue at all. That you would make it one is revealing.
“Besides which, I don’t think anyone even denies that Cheney set up his own intelligence organization because he didn’t like what the CIA was giving him.”
That’s not what you claimed. You claimed “he set up his own separate intelligence group inside the pentagon whose job it was to gin up evidence to make the case they wanted to make, true or not.”
Turns out that maybe Cheney had a good reason for not trusting the CIA’s intelligence.
“Turns out that maybe Cheney had a good reason for not trusting the CIA’s intelligence.”
Interesting circular logic here. The intelligence the public has been made aware of is the intelligence that the Administration filtered/manipulated/modified - to whatever degree they did so (personall, I don’t think we will ever know to what extent this occured). So the fact that the public (filtered) information was flawed is, according to Morris, good reason for the Administration to …filter information.
Turns out that maybe Cheney had a good reason for not trusting the CIA’s intelligence.
Except that the CIA’s intelligence was largely correct, and Cheney’s intelligence was bad.