US intelligence on Iraqi mobile bioweapons labs was not verified

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040305/wl_mideast_afp/us_iraq_intelligence&cid=1514&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US pre-war claims that Iraq (news - web sites) had mobile biological weapons laboratories were based on second-hand information provided by an Iraqi defector who was never interviewed by US intelligence, The Washington Post revealed.


Touted by US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) when he gave the reasons for waging war on Iraq to the UN Security Council in February 2003, no such mobile labs have been found in Iraq since the war ended last year.


After the war, two semitrailers unearthed in Iraq were publicly paraded by US officials, including President George W. Bush (news - web sites), as mobile laboratories capable of producing banned biological weapons. Experts now believe they were used for other purposes.


Citing current and former senior US intelligence officials and congressional experts who have studied classified documents, the Post said Friday that the Iraqi defector who provided the original tip never dealt with US intelligence, but passed his information along through a foreign intelligence service.


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[ze_dscherman]

1. Foreign intelligence service?

Guesses anyone? And who so desperately wanted to believe in these weapons? And why was such weak intelligence made into a big scare?

But wait, there's nothing to see, better move on. Now that the Iraqis are free and their country prospers, it does not matter any more.

[salin]

2. that first line is devastating.

The source was never interviewed. The source was the single source for the alleged intelligence.

Interesting - passed along through a 'foreign service'... sort of like the question of WHO passed along the 'Niger' info which had been given to an Italian media source, and been deemed unreliable and thus not even used by news... and then suddenly moved into intel circles. The question has been, if I recall, who initially planted the story, and how did it get moved back into circulation after being sat upon by the Italian media source?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. O-S-P

[salin]

5. indeed... let's chant til it shows up in these stories.... OSP OSP OSP

Mainstream media... all stories about additional reveals per nonchecked/validated intel used to sell iraq SHOULD INCLUDE a discussion, or at least a mention of: the Office of Special Plans.

Without that factual item - there is little context for the public to understand HOW this all happened.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Gee that's not what they said last July?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/09/iraq/main557761.shtml

Bush 'Certain' Iraq Had WMD

June 9, 2003


Bush administration officials say they are confident proof will emerge that Saddam Hussein possessed the chemical and biological weapons cited as a key reason to invade Iraq.

"We have thousands and thousands and thousands of documents that we've not yet gone through," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. More sites need to be investigated and many more Iraqis must be interviewed about Saddam's weapons capabilities, she added.

"We will put together this whole picture, but the preponderance of evidence is that this was a regime that had the capability, that had unaccounted-for stockpiles and unaccounted-for weapons," Rice told CBS' "Face the Nation."

The discovery of two Iraqi truck trailers, equipped with fermenters, is the strongest U.S. evidence to date that Iraq had a biological weapons program; no actual weapons have been found.

[GreenGreenLimaBean]

6. Powell should not only resign, but should be prosecuted

for his testimony at the UN. He said all the evidence HE presented
was vetted. What about this Colin???

[Barrett808]

7. Vote this one up - 4.60 with 135 votes n/t

n/t