Bush ignored warnings on Iraq insurgency threat before invasion
Intelligence suggested country faced years of tumult
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday September 29, 2004
The Guardian
The Bush administration disregarded intelligence reports two months before the invasion of Iraq which warned that a war could unleash a violent insurgency and rising anti-US sentiment in the Middle East, it emerged yesterday.
The warning, delivered in two classified reports to the White House in January 2003, was prepared by the National Intelligence Council, the same advisory board that warned the Bush administration last month that the violence in Iraq could descend into a civil war.
That forecast radically departs from George Bush's upbeat assertions that the situation is improving in Iraq, and he initially dismissed the assessment as a "guess".
The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, suggested the assessment was the work of "handwringers".
The revelation yesterday that the White House was similarly cavalier about prewar warnings could hurt Mr Bush in the run-up to tomorrow's presidential debate, which is focused on foreign policy.
The Democratic challenger, John Kerry, has led a dogged effort to shift the election agenda from the "war on terror" to the chaos in Iraq, and yesterday's report at last provides him with a new opening.
One of the prewar assessments said it would take years of tumult before democracy was established in Iraq, and the country could revert to its tradition of authoritarian rule. According to the New York Times, it also warned that the new authorities in Iraq could face a guerrilla war waged by remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, and other militant groups.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1315023,00.htmlGET ON IT KERRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!