Again, with the "CIA's fault"! So the WH is a rubber stamp for the CIA?

[Brotherjohn]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-03-14-senate-cia-iraq_x.htm

The Senate is coming down hard on the CIA for being the ones who made all the exaggerrated, unequivocated, statements about Iraqi WMDs before the war. Poor White House! No one there has the ability to think critically, so we can't blame them for taking the National Intelligence Estimate on faith!

And with Bush as their leader, they apparently all followed his example by only reading the brief synopsis, and not bothering to get into little details like highlighted boxed sections which point out that our biggest experts on such matters as uranium enrichment centrifuges and unmanned drones (DOE and Air Force) dissented strongly with the other agencies.

I guess they also followed Bush's lead in not reading the papers. You know, the papers where the U.N. and numerous other sources were making it very clear that not only were the aluminum tubes NOT most suitable for uranium enrichment, but that this was a very unlikely use for them. The papers where the U.N. made clear, BEFORE the war, that Iraq had NOT re-started it's nuclear weapons program at all, and that the documents claiming Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Africa were obvious forgeries.

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the intelligence committee, said the committee "has found no such instances" that the White House exaggerated the Iraqi threat beyond the conclusions of intelligence reports. So the CIA did all the embellishing! Well, that settles it!

Of course, that discounts that anyone in the White House can think, and it also discounts the simple truth which we already know. There are many documented cases where the WH stated the evidence dropping the many qualifiers used by intelligence. Such "fringe" media outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post have reported extensively on this, among many, many others. Buried in the last sentence of the USA Today article, "Democrats have cited several" such instances of the administration exaggerrating the Iraqi threat. Of course, no need to go into what those several instances were. Sen. Roberts says it's all the CIA! (Move on. Nothing to see here, folks.)

The White House made the decision to go to war, NOT the CIA! They had a lot more than the summary statements from the NIE upon which to base that decision. Unless we are willing to believe that no one in the White House is capable of reading the papers or has any critical thinking capacity (in which case they should be kicked out on their collective ears), then they ARE INDEED responsible for exaggerrating the threat and misleading the nation in the buildup to war (in which case they should also be kicked out on their collective ears).

It all continues to come back to two options which the simple facts reveal, and which we here have been saying for many many months: They are either incompetent or they are lying. Both are equally damning.

[dennis4868]

1. I just dont understand...

how anyone can say with a straight face that Bush and the WH did not exxagerate and lie about the threat. It is as obvious as today is Monday. Where do I begin?

1. The Iraq link to 911 and link to al Qaeda. No NIE or any intelligence agency said this was true, yet Bush and Cheney told the nation is was true. Cant blame the CIA for this one Senator Roberts.

2. Mushroom cloud....no where in any declassified intelligence report did it refer to Iraq's threat turning into a mushroom cloud.

3. No where in any intelligence report did it say that Iraq definitely had WMD....it used the word "probably" and many dissenting views were included. Yet Bush and his thigs told us "no doubt Saddam has WMD."

3. Iraq tried to acquire Alluminum tubes and yellowcake...Bush and his thugs told us this even though everyone was telling them that this was not true. Cant blame the CIA for this Senator Roberts.

I could go on with all the lies....but dont have the time to now...

Fuck you Senator Roberts!

By the way, Bush decided to go to war before there ever was an NIE....cant blame the CIA for that Mr. Roberts!