WP (Pincus): Experts Say U.S. Never Spoke to Source of Tip On Bioweapons

[kskiska]

Information From Iraqi Relayed By Foreign Agency, CIA Notes

By Walter Pincus
Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A20

The Bush administration's prewar assertion that Saddam Hussein had a fleet of mobile labs that could produce bioweapons rested largely on information from an Iraqi defector working with another government who was never interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers, according to current and former senior intelligence officials and congressional experts who have studied classified documents.

In his presentation before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said "firsthand descriptions" of the mobile bioweapons fleet had come from an Iraqi chemical engineer who had defected and is "currently hiding in another country with the certain knowledge that Saddam Hussein will kill him if he finds him."

The claims about the mobile facilities remain unverified, however, and now U.S. officials are trying to get access to the Iraqi engineer to verify his story, the sources said, particularly because intelligence officials have discovered that he is related to a senior official in Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, a group of Iraqi exiles who actively encouraged the United States to invade Iraq.

Powell also cited another defector in his speech, an Iraqi major who was made available to U.S. officials by the INC, as supporting the engineer's story. The major, however, had already been "red-flagged" by the Defense Intelligence Agency as having provided questionable information about Iraq's mobile biological program. But DIA analysts did not pass along that cautionary note, and the major was cited in an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq and was mentioned in Powell's speech, officials said.

The administration's handling of intelligence alleging the existence of mobile bioweapons facilities has become part of several broad investigations now underway into the intelligence community's faulty prewar conclusions that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The Senate and House intelligence committees are conducting probes, as are the CIA and a commission appointed by President Bush.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31591-2004Mar4.html

[Cush]

1. Buried on Page A20

typical

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. So Much For The Post-War Post

Let's see what articles were more worthy of the front page than this one:

2 stories about Blackmum

Lead in DC's waters

Memogate update

Babies dying in "free Iraq" hospitals

Three Muslims convicted of terrorism in VA

Bush 9/11 Campaign ads.

Well, I'm not saying these stories aren't worthy, but surely they could find some room for Pincus' story up there, right?

[Jacobin]

11. Pro-War Post

now slinkily mentioning that they supported an illegal invasion based on obvious lies that is doomed to failure.

Bastards

[Old and In the Way]

2. Powell: I know a friend of my brother whose cousin's uncle

works with a guy that heard from a paid informant that Hussein has WMD. Rock solid evidence. :eyes:

[Trajan]

3. Thank you , Walter Pincus ...

for the FACTS regarding the ineptitude and reckless disregard for honest intelligence that pervaded this criminal administration ...

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. US population is much too stupid

To understand this level of nuance, particularly your average southern cracker working at Walmart & attending NASCAR - the bush base.

The facts are absolutely clear, and have been since 2002, smirk intentionally and with extreme malice, fabricated a totally bogus set of reasons why we needed to attack Iraq. Nothing would have stopped the bastard.

[Just Me]

8. Yup,...our executive branch has become a fabrication machine,...

,...with experts at fabrication (professional fabricators) flooding the public with a continuous flow of facades to maintain an illusion of prosperity, courage and justice.

[yardwork]

12. Um, excuse me.

"US population is much too stupid
....To understand this level of nuance, particularly your average southern cracker working at Walmart & attending NASCAR - the bush base."

Just a tip. This is the sort of comment that makes southerners vote against Yankee candidates.

Every region of the country has its share of bigots and morons. And every region of the country has well-educated, informed, thoughtful people. Some of them like to go to NASCAR events. Some of them work at Walmart (because there isn't a better option).

[young_at_heart]

6. Why isn't this MAJOR news?

It should have at least made the second page!

[jackstraw45]

7. It IS Major news...

the fact that it was buried on page A20 is typical of the Post.

Tkey is to spread it around and hope the AP picks it up or a Senator holds a press briefing or something.

WE must carry the burdon of getting the word out. The media whores, owned by the big corporations, will do anything they can to minmize damage to the President giving them big tax breaks.

WE must spread the word, as usual....

[young_at_heart]

9. It's almost like being a member of The Boston Tea Party

The lengths those people had to go through to get noticed.....much like now. Talk about feeling disenfranchised!

[alcuno]

10. SOTU Speech - 2003

"From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them."