WMD panel shouldn't blame CIA, diplomat says (Wilson)

[TacticalPeek]

WMD panel shouldn't blame CIA, diplomat says

Ambassador who went to Niger sees need for intelligence overhaul

By Martin Wolk
MSNBC
Updated: 04:07 PM PT  Feb. 06, 2004

SEATTLE - Joseph Wilson, the retired diplomat who sparked a furor
with revelations about his own findings in the run-up to the Iraq
war, said Friday the nation's intelligence system is due for an
overhaul

Wilson, in an
interview with
MSNBC.com, said
President Bush's
appointment of an
independent
commission to study
intelligence failures in
Iraq and elsewhere
could play a useful
role if it sets the
stage for reform.

But Wilson, whose
wife was famously
"outed" as a CIA agent after he went public with his concerns
about White House misstatements, warned that the commission will
serve no useful purpose if it becomes a pawn in a blame game over
Iraq.

"The accountability for this war in Iraq does not lie with George
Tenet and the intelligence community,"he said. "It resides with the
president of the United States and his war Cabinet advisers."


more

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4201208/


(glaring editorial gaffe down in the article)

[TacticalPeek]

1. And he repeated his previously expressed hope that Rove would be

"frog-marched out of the White House, whether he is in handcuffs or not."


The wheels are turning.

[maggrwaggr]

2. gee. how diplomatic

don'tcha like how they led with, and emphasized, the notion of "could play a useful role".

He sounds almost agreeable.

Fucking press.

Quit being such a gentleman, Wilson. It's time to have some teeth. People like you. You can bite now.

[RainDog]

3. it's a great interview. he's laying out the facts.

Cold War-era system
The fact that his reports from Niger were at best ignored by the administration supports the case for taking a hard look at an intelligence system developed in the Cold War era that may not be up to the task of battling the more serious and diffuse threat posed by global terrorism, Wilson said.

“I do think that there is room for improvement in the analytical process and in the collection process,” he said. “At a minimum I would want to see a good look at everything we do. And I think we all want to see the independence of the intelligence assessment reaffirmed.”

Wilson, who served mostly in Africa in his 22-year foreign service career, said he had no idea whether CIA analysts were pressured to put forward information that supported Bush administration preconceptions about going to war in Iraq. But he still burns with righteous indignation about the way his wife, Valerie Plame, was dragged into the public debate after he published a New York Times op-ed piece titled “What I Didn't Find in Africa.”

“Even in the world of bare-knuckle politics in Washington it is unprecedented not just to bring one’s family members into the public arena, but it is unprecedented to put your own political agenda above the national security of your country,” he said.