Is Iraqi Intel Still Being Manipulated?

[priller]

The sad and secretive tale of an Iraqi scientist

By Michael Hirsh
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

His story seemed, in the beginning, a godsend for the Bush administration. In early June, Iraqi nuclear scientist Mahdi Obeidi revealed to CIA investigators that in 1991, just after the Persian Gulf War, he had gone into his backyard to bury gas-centrifuge equipment used to enrich uranium.

It appeared to be hard evidence backing up what the Bush team had maintained all along: that Saddam Hussein had a secret nuclear-weapons program and had hidden it so well that United Nations inspectors never would have found it on their own. This, after all, was one of the justifications for the war that began in March, and evidence for Vice President Dick Cheney’s charge that the Iraqis were “reconstituting a nuclear program.” Obeidi also turned over to the CIA 180 documents on Iraq’s enrichment program, as well as about 200 blueprints for centrifuges.

<snip>

 But for the Bush administration, things quickly began to go wrong with the Obeidi story. True, Obeidi said he’d buried the centrifuge equipment, as he’d been ordered to do in 1991 by Saddam’s son Qusay Hussein and son-in-law Hussein Kamel. But he also insisted to the CIA that, in effect, that was that: Saddam had never reconstituted his centrifuge program afterward, in large part because of the Iraqi tyrant’s fear of being discovered under the U.N. sanctions-and-inspections regime. If true, this was a terribly inconvenient fact for the Bush administration, after months in which Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials had alleged that aluminum tubes imported from 11 countries were intended for just such a centrifuge program. Obeidi denied that and added that he would have known about any attempts to restart the program. He also told the CIA that, as the International Atomic Energy Agency and many technical experts have said, the aluminum tubes were intended for rockets, not uranium enrichment or a nuclear-weapons program. And he stuck by his story, despite persistent questioning by CIA investigators who still believed he was not telling the full truth...Soon, not only was Obeidi no longer a marquee name for the Bush team, he was incommunicado.

Full story at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/950224.asp?0cv=KB20

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[The Magistrate]

1. Of Course It Is Still Being Manipulated

If anything, the level of manipulation has increased, for the truth of the matter is quite clear: the claim there were nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in existance and ready to use was a deliberate and knowing lie. Since this can never be acknowledged by the liars, a new level of desperation has been added to their attempts at finding "proofs."

[FreeperSlayer]

2. Josh Marshall beat him to it

Josh had this posted last week.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/aug0301.html#080603329pm

[gandalf]

3. If only Iraq news were manipulated,

I would be happy.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. LMAO too funny a question

[tom_paine]

5. Ha Ha -- has it ever NOT been manipulated?

Ha Ha -- this would be funnier if it was ANOTHER nation being ground under the bootheel of an Imperial Dynasty.

But it's OURS!