Iraqi Exiles Distorted, Exagerated Hussein Threat

[fencesitter]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/7951414.htm

Sorry if this is a dupe, but I didn't see this story posted.

From today's Philadelphia Inquirer......


Iraqi defectors gave misleading information to bolster the case for war, U.S. officials have found.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that almost all of the Iraqi defectors whose information helped make the Bush administration's case against Saddam Hussein exaggerated what they knew, fabricated tales, or were "coached" by others on what to say.
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay / Inquirer Washington Bureau

[ewagner]

1. Getting closer to the truth

The truth being that Cheney ignored the intelligence community and took this information to the pResident to make the case for war (spelled o-i-l). I wonder if the OSP was the conduit for this information, or if it went directly to Cheney?

Thoughts?

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DrBB]

7. Sometimes irony ain't so ironic

Your boy Bush and his supposedly sophisticated chums Rummy, Wolfie and Cheney got played like chumps--like first class hayseed rubes--by Chalabi (a convicted embezzler) and his pals. Why? Because they WANTED to be played. They wanted to be told what they wanted to hear, and like classic amateurs they completely ignored the first rule of intelligence analysis: know the motives of the people who want to sell you information.

Why did they want to be played like hicks in the Big City by an operator like Chalabi? Because they have a geopolitical theory about how nice it would be to control Iraq, and the reasons are complex but yes, they DO involve the worldwide oil supply.

Who is paying for this "neat idea" (to use a term of another GOP hero with involvements in this area)? You are, bub, and so am I and every other taxpayer, to the tune of untold billions. Untold, because they aren't declared in your boy's budget--how's that for honesty, dignity and personal responsibility?

Are the Iraqis better off without Saddam? Sure. So's Chalabi. But are WE? That's the question you should be asking. And the answer is, quite evidently, NO, because it turns out he wasn't the threat he was hyped to be, but our invasion has turned into a boondoggle that is al Qaeda and radical Islam's #1 recruitment tool.

And our military is overstretched (mandatory service extensions constitute a covert, de facto draft), and we are paying bilions upon billions and will pay more for it. Not to mention the lives--this is THE most costly war since Viet Nam, in terms of US killed and wounded, and the killing is a long way from over.

But hey, we Got Saddam, didn't we. How nice for us.

[Peachhead22]

3. Iraqi exiles...

...who have a vested interest in diposing SH were overhyping and lying about SH's danger to everyone. Who woulda thunk it? <sarcasm>

Everyone here at DU had Chalabi and his bunch pegged over a year ago.

[pepsi]

5. Chalibi..oh..Chalibi

Remember the PBS Frontline program where Chalibi claimed to have concrete evidence of Saddam/Al-quaeda ties that he had provided to the US Gov...but...refused to show frontline? Re-watch this program here...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/truth/view/

[jpak]

8. Yeah - and he knew where the WMD were

and he knew where Saddam was - last May.

Your tax dollars at work.

[54anickel]

11. I just went digging for that one! You beat me to it. This was great!

[LiberalFighter]

4. Nothing more?? There weren't any incentives??

No monetary incentives? No revenge? No intent for a regime change?

[Oilwellian]

6. Oh, and they're suddenly realizing this?

The CIA already has announced changes in how raw intelligence is shared with intelligence analysts, after it was discovered that a May 2002 alert saying an INC-supplied defector was believed to be fabricating data went unnoticed.

The oversight led the NIE and Powell to allege that Iraq had mobile biological-warfare research facilities.

CIA Director George Tenet, in a Feb. 5 speech, said the agency also was "finding discrepancies" in defectors' claims about separate mobile facilities for producing, as opposed to researching, biological agents.


It was the intelligence analysts within the CIA and State Department who were objecting to the INC's itel. Did you notice this article didn't mention the name "Office Of Special Plans" and they're laying it at the feet of the DIA?

[ewagner]

9. DIA

Isn't that the organization Pearle used to chair? Along with Newt Gingrich on the committee? Isn't that also PNAC Central!

[PurityOfEssence]

10. Bastards. How dare they do exactly what we asked them to do!

The real question is "who started this conquest?"

Obviously, the intelligence community didn't run, breathless to the White House waving photos and spluttering about imminent doom. The spooks had to be cajoled to come up with highly qualified and meek justifications.

Sure, exiles will always say whatever necessary to get you to take up their cause for them; any savvy politician knows that their word isn't worth squat.

Regional neighbors weren't running to us trying to get rid of Hussein; a status quo where he was bottled up and his country was moribund and non-competitive served their purposes.

That's the inescapable truth here: the administration wanted to get revenge on Hussein and seize his oil.

With each admission about flimsy evidence, it is more and more obvious that it was a private addendum of this bunch of gangsters. Bush feels that he's entitled to this country, and he's entitled to use it's wealth, lives and reputation to get revenge for the embarrassing failure of his Daddy and to steal other people's property.