Blumenthal: There Was No Failure of Intelligence

[kskiska]

US spies were ignored, or worse, if they failed to make the case for war


Before he departed on his quest for Saddam Hussein's fabled weapons of mass destruction last June, David Kay, chief of the Iraq Survey Group, told friends that he expected promptly to locate the cause of the pre-emptive war. On January 28, Kay appeared before the Senate to testify that there were no WMDs. "It turns out that we were all wrong," he said. President Bush, he added helpfully, was misinformed by the whole intelligence community which, like Kay, made assumptions that turned out to be false.

Within days, Bush declared that he would, after all, appoint a commission to investigate; significantly, it would report its findings only after the presidential election.

Kay's testimony was the catalyst for this u-turn, but only one of his claims is correct: that he was wrong. The truth is that much of the intelligence community did not fail, but presented correct assessments and warnings, that were overridden and suppressed. On virtually every single important claim made by the Bush administration in its case for war, there was serious dissension. Discordant views - not from individual analysts but from several intelligence agencies as a whole - were kept from the public as momentum was built for a congressional vote on the war resolution.

(snip)

Never before had any senior White House official physically intruded into CIA's Langley headquarters to argue with mid-level managers and analysts about unfinished work. But twice vice president Cheney and Lewis Libby, his chief of staff, came to offer their opinions. According to Patrick Lang: "They looked disapproving, questioned the reports and left an impression of what you're supposed to do. They would say: 'you haven't looked at the evidence'. The answer would be, those reports aren't valid. The analysts would be told, you should look at this again'. Finally, people gave up. You learn not to contradict them."

(snip)

Powell is sensitive to the slightest political winds, especially if they might affect his reputation. If he is a bellwether, will it soon be that every man must save himself?

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1141400,00.html

[Seldona]

1. Did you see 60 Minutes II tonight?

In the story 'The man that knew.', intelligence analyst Scott Pelley
buried the administration.

I believe his last quote in the story was something like 'The decision to go to war was already made. Senior administration officials then used available inteliigence to back that disicion.'

That is not verbatum, but a summery of his interview.

This has legs folks, and is not going away no matter how many people, including Powell, are willing to take it on the chin for him.

The interview looked alot like 'Uncovered', the Moveon.org video.

YEA!

[kskiska]

2. Missed it, but read the CBS website account

If Powell and the others make the decision to save their own butts, we could be watching a rerun of the Iran-Contra/Watergate hearings. I just hope we can vote these people out before that takes place so we won't be stuck with this band of thieves for another four years. I'd rather watch the hearings after they've gone.