Could you say this before hand next time PLEASE...?

[Flabbergasted]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-04-21T213813Z_01_N21335253_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-INTELLIGENCE-CIA.xml

Ex-CIA agent says WMD intelligence ignored
Fri Apr 21, 2006 5:38pm ET
Politics News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA had evidence Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction six months before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but was ignored by a White House intent on ousting Saddam Hussein, a former senior CIA official said according to CBS.

Tyler Drumheller, who headed CIA covert operations in Europe during the run-up to the Iraq war, said intelligence opposing administration claims of a WMD threat came from a top Iraqi official who provided the U.S. spy agency with other credible information.

The source "told us that there were no active weapons of mass destruction programs," Drumheller said in a CBS interview to be aired on Sunday on the network's news magazine, "60 Minutes."

"The (White House) group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested," he was quoted as saying in interview excerpts released by CBS on Friday.


"We said: 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said: 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change'," added Drumheller, whose CIA operation was assigned the task of debriefing the Iraqi official.

He was the latest former U.S. official to accuse the White House of setting an early course toward war in Iraq and ignoring intelligence that conflicted with its aim.

[mike_c]

1. the CIA has known since the early 1990's that Iraq was disarmed...

...per Scott Ritter. I don't believe ANY of this "intelligence mistake" BS. The intelligence was not "mistaken," it was deliberately manipulated for political purposes. That manipulation began during Clinton's presidency and was turned into a raging propaganda machine in the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Powell White House.