U.S. Acknowledges Some Flaws on Iraq Intelligence

[rodbarnett]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - George W. Bush's national security adviser said on Thursday some prewar intelligence about Iraq (news - web sites) was flawed, but Iraq's foreign minister said he was confident weapons of mass destruction would still be found.

Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) defended Bush's decision to go to war and said the United States may never learn the whole truth about Iraq's weapons capabilities because of looting after the conflict.

<snip>

Rice's comments came after former chief weapons hunter David Kay said the allegation Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was wrong, deepening controversy over whether the war was justified.


"I think that what we have is evidence that there are differences between what we knew going in and what we found on the ground," Rice told CBS television, brushing aside calls for an independent investigation

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20040129/wl_nm/iraq_dc

[SlavesandBulldozers]

1. everybody knew

that Bush had intelligence problems. That this is new to Condi is disturbing.

[el_gato]

2. flaws my ass they planned to invade

hell they were handing out contracts to halliburton a year before

[Barrett808]

3. "killed more than 550 coalition soldiers"?

The conflict and postwar violence has killed more than 550 coalition soldiers and an estimated several thousand Iraqis.

In Iraq's north, guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade on Thursday at a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps south of the city of Kirkuk, killing one member of the force, the Kirkuk police chief said.

In central Iraq, explosives hidden in a cart carrying diesel fuel was detonated as a Defense Corps patrol made its way through the town of Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, wounding 10 people, two of them seriously.

And in the southern city of Basra, where British troops are responsible for security, a roadside bomb exploded as a convoy carrying civilian officials was passing, wounding three Iraqi bystanders, a spokesman for the British forces said.

[LiberalFighter]

11. Update

There have been 611 confirmed coalition deaths, 518 Americans, 57 Britons, five Bulgarians, one Dane, 17 Italians, two Poles, eight Spaniards, two Thai and one Ukrainian, in the war as of January 27, 2004.


Does not include deaths in Afghanistan.

[Amager]

4. The lies are so transparent

If the explanations are so simple then there should be no problem with the independent investigation going forward.

[tom_paine]

5. In other news, Nazis say Poland didn't actually attack them

Berlin (AP)-- Today Nazi officials said they were "misled by bad intelligence" from the SS who insisted that Polish soldiers stromed over the Nazi Czechoslovakian border and murdered all the German soldiers at a border outpost.

Heinrich Himmler, a top nazi official, said, "I think that what we have is evidence that there are differences between what we knew going in and what we found on the ground," but that they were not leaving Poland because "we have to finish what we started there".

=====================================================

Amerika, I scarcely recognize you from back in the days when you lead the Free World.

Now, Amerika doesn;t even technically BELONG to the Free World anymore.

[teryang]

16. Iraq has attacked Amerika for the last time!

Rheinhard Dietriech is alive and well in Crawford, Texas.

[maggrwaggr]

6. uh .... so the WMD's were looted? Wouldn't this be bad?

Hey Condi -- nice try lying there, girl! But what you say is even WORSE! Becaue if what you say is true, then somebody looted fucking WMD's and they could be anywhere! Like in your fucking closet! Under your Jetta!

Stupid stupid stupid woman.

[hatrack]

7. "Custer acknowledges some flaws with battle plan"

"Hoover acknowledges some flaws in employment outlook"

"Hirohito acknowledges some flaws in atomic bomb defense planning"

"Stalin acknowledges some flaws in collective farming plan"

"Capt. Scott acknowledges some flaws in Antarctic exploration plan"

[SOS]

8. Everything in Powells

UN presentation is now proved false. Condi refers to this as "some flaws'"! Living in a one-party state, with checks and balances stripped, is awful.

[fizzana]

10. Not only that. Every statement was so categorical.

It wasn't. "We believe Iraq has..."

It was, "We know Iraq has......."

[Tracer]

9. As David Allbright (former weapons inspector) said ...

... on NPR today —

"the administration is left in the position of trying to prove that the earth is flat."

[Barkley]

13. And as Paul Krugman said (paraphrased)

If the administration said the 'earth was flat' the mainstream
press headlines would read "Shape of the World in Dispute.'

[bobthedrummer]

12. Bush lied and used his faith in the neo-con selective intelligence

which was Chalibi junk, they rode roughshod over the CIA which knew there were no WMD in Iraq to speak of let alone launch a war PNAC style IMO for a regime change in Baghdad.

Then there are the foreign policy repercussions of being either with or against Bush, our next President will have a lot of work to do in repairing traditional alliances, so will the next Prime Minister of the U.K. IMO.

All the blood of this is on Bush and Blair.
They're still lying, people are still dying.

[louis-t]

14. The Spin Zone...

Bushies are trying to spin this into 'flawed intel' so CIA will take the heat. They are dying for someone in the intel community to fall on a sword. However, the question has never been so much about the intel but what was done with it. Ignoring the parts he wasn't interested in or didn't fit his agenda is what this is about. Selective interpretation of information and/or manipulation of data. The pattern was the same for EPA report about WTC air quality, global warming, etc. Blatant corruption and treason only begin to describe this bunch. Sick bastards.

[Demeter]

15. This Might Have Been Plausible

If Valerie Plame hadn't been betrayed to her adversaries.

There was no reason to mess with Wilson's wife, except that he called them liars to their faces.

The retaliation indicates that there was no intelligence problem; there was a concerted campaign to manufacture false information and use it to justify the unjustifable.

[loudnclear]

17. Here's the rub: Saddam told the truth and Bush and his admin. lied!

Why the hell were we spending so much time smearing Scott Ritter and Hans Blix and anyone else who tried to warn us to allow the weapons search to proceed? Bush even lied when he said that Saddam had thrown the weapons inspectors out...that was simply not true and the media knew it and yet they pumped the party line.

It is absolutely disgusting that we have this group of thugs running and ruining out government and our country. They should all be held as war criminals or at criminals against humanity!

Cheney, who really runs Bush, Perele, Wolfowitz, and Rummy should all be thrown in jail for at least 10 years for crimes against humanity. They have all endangered the security and STABILITY of the US and that should be treasonous. (Yes, Ann Coulter, there are traitors among us!)

I only hope that the energized turnout in the Dem campaign ignites a firestorm of activism and folks get out and vote...and if they are denied the opportunity to vote they should turn the voting places out! It's time for action..."If it is to be, it's up to me."

[Dr Fate]

18. How are forged & plagerized documents "flaws?"

???