C.I.A. Disputes Accusations That Its Prewar Conclusions on Iraq Arms Were

[Desperadoe]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The Central Intelligence Agency responded angrily on Friday to new Congressional criticism of its handling of prewar intelligence about Iraq's suspected illicit weapons program. At a briefing at C.I.A. headquarters, four senior intelligence officials said that a top-secret internal review now underway had found no evidence of faulty work.

"What it has shown us is that the judgments were not only sound, they were very sound, and backed up by more than one source," a senior intelligence official said of the review, which is being conducted under orders from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.

The briefing was organized in response to a report in The Washington Post that said the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was preparing to issue a report saying that intelligence agencies made serious errors of judgment in their prewar conclusion that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons and was reconstituting its nuclear program.

In an angry public statement, the C.I.A. spokesman, Bill Harlow, said that any such finding would be premature. Mr. Harlow said that top intelligence officials had not yet been given an opportunity to share their own findings with members of the intelligence committee<snip>...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/25/international/middleeast/25INTE.html

[goforit]

1. Do ya think the CIA has had the last straw with Bush???

I would certainly hope so!!!!

Time to clean house America!!!!

Congress and the presidency has to go!!!

[joeybee12]

3. I hoep you're right--I hope we're seeing the beginning of a war between

Dumbo and the CIA. And I'll put my money on the CIA--I think Dumbo is dumb enough to believe he's King, and is in for a rude awakening.

I also think the military might have had enough with Dumbo.

Could it be that he's in bigger trouble than is being reported???

[goforit]

4. I would hope the CIA is more united than ever before.

I would hope the military would unite as well.
No leadership/ no moral justification.....hampers motivation!!!

I do hope that the lower ranks wake up before it is toooooo late!!!

[Jazzgirl]

7. I believe Bush is in serious trouble.

I agree he thinks he's King. I sure hope people wake up and realize we've got the most dangerous President this country has ever had. Scary!

Jazzgirl

[snippy]

8. I think the beginning of the war may have been right after 9/11 when

the adminstration belittled the August 6, 2001 CIA briefing warning of an upcoming terrorist attack against the US possibly involving hijacked airplanes. Since then the administration has attempted to blame the CIA for most of Bush's fuck ups.

The first actual shot in the war was the leaking by the CIA of the request for a criminal investigation into the leaking of the Plame information. The CIA is keeping the heat on that and continues to counter any other Bushshit criticisms from the administration.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. There are several things going on that indicate all is not well with....

...the Bushies:

1) The ongoing dispute with the CIA concerning intelligence on WMDs in Iraq. The CIA has long held the view that there is no intelligence to support WMDs in Iraq, and they've held that view since well before the now-infamous "16 words" appeared in Dubya's State of the Union Address on January 28, 2003. The Wilson Affair was the last straw for a large faction within the CIA. Since then, there has been a constant flow of leaks involving current and past events damaging to the Bushies. Retired CIA operatives have also been testifying before Congress on the damage done by the "outing" of Valerie Plame and the destruction of her worldwide WMD surveillance network. The CIA knows where everything is buried, particularly about the Bush family itself. Look for additional damaging reports on the Bushies to begin to appear in the press more frequently.

2) The constant flow of information damaging to the Bushies coming from members of the U. S. Military in Iraq. Dubya brought this on himself the day that he declared that the war in Iraq was over. From that point on, the media has been full of stories from soldiers in Iraq that do not have sufficient body armor, food, water, and other supplies. Additionally, despite Dubya's claim that the media's reporting on Iraq has been "too nagative", those reports have intensified in print as well as through television reporting. Recently, several Army personnel on two-week leave from Iraq have refused to return.

3) A large faction with the Dept of Justice is also beginning to rebel against both Ashcroft and Dubya on a wide front. Conservative judges have been issuing rulings that are counter to the so-called "Patriot Act", and have also begun to leak damaging information to the press. Recently, a current member of the FBI and previous whistleblower, wrote a letter to the editor with the APPROVAL of senior FBI leadership that was a scathing attack on the policies of Ashcroft.

4) Leaks have also started to grow within the civilian leadership of the Pentagon itself. Confidential memos, such as the recent one that Rumsfeld authored about the state of affairs in Iraq, have been published in the press that are very damaging to Rumsfeld.

5) And last but not least, the mainstream media has been publishing leaks from all of the groups noted above and have been printing their own damaging investigative reports. My contention is that the media has been unleashed by their very conservative corporate owners because those corporate owners have not gotten what they wanted from the Bushies...a stable growing economy plus the 2/3rds of the tax cuts they DID NOT receive in the original tax-cut bill. Have you noticed that the House is now trying to put together legislation for additional corporate tax cuts that seem to equal the cuts Big Business did not get the first time around? The bushies are desperately trying to make that happen to get the major corporate owners of the press off their backs.

IMHO, the Bushies ARE in much worse trouble than the general public knows.

[grasswire]

15. and....

...at least two incidents were reported during the week of Republicans in Congress going against the will of the WH. On Cuba and on another bill (I've forgotten what).

When the Pugs start pulling away from Bush, the chances of a primary challenger to him increase.

I still think that's going to happen. I believe the inner circle will pretend to back Bush but encourage and support a primary challenger.

[leesa]

10. Judging by the security surrounding him, I would say "yes"

The Boy Cheerleader is in big-time trouble. Barbara Bush better start worrying her beautiful head.

[cthrumatrix]

2. go ahead shrub.... piss off the CIA

shrub is a "puppet"....he is being lead down a path of replacement.

The "puppet master" will replace shrub with another. He's served his purpose.

[BlackVelvet]

6. I predict the next puppet will be

Kerry.

[priller]

5. Remember, it's not the crime, it's the coverup

Sen. Pat Roberts is working as hard as he can to rewrite history to absolve Dubya and the PNAC gang of all responsibility. In doing so, they're making even worse enemies of the CIA and other intel groups. Roberts is putting all the focus on the NIE, saying that led Bush into the war, but that's revisionism at its worst. This is what Josh Marshall said about this yesterday:

This NIE was done after the White House had already chosen its policy. And it wasn’t even the White House that called for it, but rather Senate Democrats who were miffed that the administration had never requested an NIE.

In fact, the White House specifically resisted requesting an NIE because it didn’t want the findings getting in the way of its policy.

So Roberts' claim that the White House was “ill-served” fails on chronology and simple logic. The NIE could not have failed the White House, because the White House didn’t use it. Simple as that.

And why was the NIE so rushed? Because it was a double-quick affair rushed into print at the last minute to get Senate Democrats to vote for the Iraq resolution.

The NIE was done after the White House was already on the record with a policy. So the White House’s views on what it wanted the NIE to say were, shall we say, rather clear. And this whole project came after 18 months in which the administration was mau-mauing the CIA to come up with more alarmist reports about Iraq.

[9215]

11. This is something

The Senate Intelligence Committee doesn't have the spine to point the finger at Bush, but they keep forgetting that the victim past, present and future of this kind of passing the buck IS the CIA. To them Bush's actions are a life and death matter and they realize now that Bush will do anything to avoid responsibility for the falsehoods about Iraq. When the WHouse outed Plame the writing was on the wall: "Bush doesn't care about the safety of people risking their lives in the intelligence community if his political situation is at stake".

This has two effects at least. Firstly, the obvious resistance to Bush and now Congress's attempt to pin the thing on the CIA, but also it, IMO, is having an effect on operations. Bush's attempts at ousting Chavez of Venezuela aren't nearly as resolute as in the past. Could it be that those in the CIA simply don't want to stick their necks out for Bush?

What does that mean for operations more closely related to terrorism? Are CIA people in those areas becoming skeptical? :scared:

[schultzee]

13. Why should the CIA cover for wimpy? Tenet already took a fall

for wimpy once, and now wimpy is trying to pin every single thing on him. I hope they go public with all the filth they have on that lieing thug wimpy.

[9215]

14. I'd guess that there is a split

in the CIA along pro and con BFEE lines. If Tenet were smart he'd just take a neutral position and let the exposure of Bush's treason take its own course, otherwise Bush could work to oust him and replace him with a more BFEE friendly head.

[0007]

17. I'm not big on Tenet -

But I'm sure he'll play it like a chess master.

[9215]

18. being 0007, hee

I'll consider that a biased source. :evilgrin:

I don't have alot of strong opinions on Tenet. By playing it "smart" I meant for his careers sake and the sake of the agency.

The CIA is a monstrosity that needs to be broken up and controlled by Congress. It should never have been hatched IMHO. It has operated way out of the bounds it was designed for.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" and the CIA came about as close to absolute power as you can get. Even during the height of the Watergate skepticism about cloak and dagger intelligence community activities the Church and Pike Committees looking into CIA abuses could do little more than slap them on the wrist.

That being said I think there are incredibly dedicated, brave people working there who have the best interests of America at heart. What really worries me is that this Bush fascist era may pass and the CIA will once again go over to the dark side of the force.

[kalian]

12. Couple this with Bush Sr "retiring" from the Carlyle Group....

I wonder what is going on? A power struggle in the upper echelons
of the elites...?

[Beetwasher]

16. Clash of the Titans

There's an historic battle raging in this country, literally a civil war for the future of the country. Most people don't realize it yet, but it's begun. I can't believe I'm rooting for the CIA...