msnbc top story: White House witheld report debunking bio lab claim

[montana500]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12275328/

"On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement"

[saltpoint]

Lying pack of thieving jackals.

I ask again: Where is the voice of Dick Lugar? why is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee so silent on all these revelations of deception and outright lies?

Didn't see this on MSNBC until you posted it here on DU tonight, Montana500. Thank you for putting it up there.

[swag]

1. Well, well, well. I'll be damned.

[burrowowl]

2. NOOOO!

I mean really, a tarp covered BIOLAB! Holely as super-swiss cheese, and critical experiments can be made in such an environment!?!?
I didn't even swallow the tubes, just basic chemistry!

[blitzen]

3. now they tell us! actually, we DUers knew all this stuff

as it was happening. Why did it take the MSM 3 years to catch up?

[leesa]

51. We DUers TOLD the MSM about it. They are complicit.

[tridim]

4. Anyone watching "Tiny KISS" now??

LMAO here. :D

[EVDebs]

5. Bush will declassify anything that appears to validate his lies. Period.

[ClintonTyree]

33. But don't the people have a right to know?

Recently, Bush has been crowing about his reasons for "declassifying" the NIE which opened the door to the Plame/Wilson smear campaign. "The people have a right to know" :eyes: ......well, don't the people have a right to know THIS as well, Georgie? :shrug: Guess not, it doesn't prove anything other than the fact he's a bald-faced liar.
And besides, the "White paper" had already been written. It would have been a shame to waste it, after all. So much speculation went into writing it, why confuse people with the facts? :eyes:
We at DU have known this for a long, long time. However, the Corporate Media is just now reporting it? They've had this information for a long time, why is it suddenly so important? They certainly didn't give two shits about it when it could have prevented going to war with Iraq. :grr: Bastards!

[madaboutharry]

6. Ari the Liar,

former press secretary said this at a daily press briefing: "The trailers are proof perfect that we have found weapons of mass destruction." Yup, that's what he said.

[saigon68]

30. THE LYING SCUMBAG

[magellan]

7. So...what bright young spark dug this up

...and why did it take so long?

This is the sort of investigative journalism that should have been done BEFORE the war. There was more than enough reason to suspect at the time that dissent was being muffled. The corporate media failed this nation by becoming an echo chamber for the Bush** administration's lies rather than doing their F&%*ng job, and IMO are every bit as culpable for the horrific results as Bush**. They're accomplices to BushCo's crimes, and if level heads ever return to DC, one of the first things that should be done is to investigate our so-called "news" outlets and determine which, if any, get to retain their broadcast licenses.

[librechik]

14. six anonymous whistleblowers blabbed to the Post. Thank you patriots!

nine experts wrote a report on the trailers saying the idea they were bioweapons is unsupportable by evidence. The report was buried until now, when this story emerged. They say they didn't come forward earlier for fear of losing their jobs.

[wordpix2]

61. thanks, whistleblowers, but you should have come forward earlier

There are a lot of jobs out there and you don't need to keep a job where you're lying to save the pResident's ass and keep his war going.

[gatorboy]

8. Oh look!

Another scandal that could easily tear down any other President. And yet....

[Blue Belle]

22. No kidding... any other President would have been Impeached..

long ago... but this one, we add this to the long list of other scandals emanating from the oval office.

[ClintonTyree]

34. But he's keeping the sheeple 'safe'.

:eyes: That's the reason they don't care about any of this. Well, they're starting to now but it sure took them long enough. They're waking up to the fact that their president is a liar and a thief. But we still have a long way to go informing the sheeple about the truth. They don't change their opinions easily, they hate to be wrong about anything. Everyone believes themselves to be highly intelligent and totally capable of ferreting out the truth in any situation. They never bargained for the likes of the Bush Administration and the Corporate Media parroting their every word.. These guys are pure Pros when it comes to propaganda and lies. They've certainly lowered the bar on what people can believe and not believe about what their government tells them.

[Scout1071]

9. Make sure you rate it up. Only 36 people rated so far. 4 stars. nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. The Republicans might as well call in the election's officers and

concede the races. Any Democrat who runs on an "Impeach, then Prosecute Bush" agenda, will win.

[0007]

11. Why is junior still hanging around our White House?

A slide that Colin Powell used at the UN Security Counsel

[Jigarotta]

12. as much as I didnt like the CIA, I kinda miss them now.

The few who where really doing their jobs, i.e. Like Valerie.

Porter Goss is the head cheese now, ain't he?

[ClintonTyree]

35. Head-Cheese

That's a good way to describe Goss. A disgusting melange made from the bits and pieces of the animal no one in their right mind would want to eat. Yes, Goss is the Bush appointed stooge who's job it is to purge The Company of anyone not aboard the Bush propaganda train. His sole mission is to turn the CIA into a loyal lap-dog of the Bush cabal. He's succeeding beyond their wildest dreams. There are still a few who hate what's become of their beloved Agency and those are the ones leaking information that hopefully will save our country from certain doom. Goss is weeding them out though, so I expect fewer and fewer "leaks" of the truth.

[Dudley_DUright]

40. Ramen CT

You are exactly correct in your analysis of what Goss is doing to the CIA. I am sure former CIA analyst Ray McGovern would agree with you.

[Canuckistanian]

13. IIRC, the international community wasn't that impressed at the time.

I even remember that the british identified the vehicle as a hydrogen generator used for filling balloons used in target practice.

They even identified the company that made the equipment.

[Pirate Smile]

15. "Not that we didn't know it was bullshit, but now we know they knew it was

bullshit too" - from Eschaton - seems get to the gist of this matter.

[Beelzebud]

16. But.. But... Colin Powell had DRAWINGS of these!!!

[CoffeeCat]

18. I remember Powell pointing them out on a satellite map!

I guess they cut out of the part of Powell's presentation when he says, "Oh my mistake. Those aren't mobile weapons labs. Those are ice cream trucks! My bad. Carry on. And get me an orange Push Up."

[wordpix2]

62. I remeber when he pointed out those "labs," I thought, geez, it doesn't

prove they're labs to me. He pointed to these rectangles taken from a satellite. They could have been mobile homes, too.

[PA Democrat]

53. Wasn't the source for those mobile labs that guy called "Curve Ball"?

IIRC he was known to be extremely unreliable, but that didn't stop the Bush gang from using his BS to scare the country into war.

[Olney Blue]

63. Yes, and Curve Ball was discredited. Who knew?!

[CoffeeCat]

17. Someone is leaking information to bring down Junior...

We're finding out a great deal of information about Junior's crimes and misdemeanors within the past few moths.

This information was always known by those "in the know."

However, we're suddenly being treated to these tidbits.

We've found out about illegal wiretapping, Cheney/Bush direct link to Plame outing, the Dubai deal, and now the mobile-weapons field report reveals that Bush lied about the WMD trailers.

Wow. Those Aspens are turning, and they're just full of information, aren't they?

Junior must understand that what is currently happening to him--is an organized effort by his own party to bring him down.

No wonder the man is hiding behind bulldozers and dump trucks.

[oxbow]

23. It's certainly been a wild ride the last few months, hasn't it?

whoever is leaking all this must sure be surprised that the Bush admin is still in the saddle.

"God, how much more do people need to see before they realize these guys are evil? We've praticically buried them in scandals and people are still acting like their shit don't stink! And when is this Congress going to grow a pair and start showing some accountability?"

Yea, that's pretty much what they're asking themselves right now :)

[Raksha]

25. That's what I was thinking too.

And notice the timing: they are making a point of kicking him while he's down! His approval numbers are in the toilet, and the documents Fitz filed last week are going to bring them even lower. And now this latest revelation about the WMD trailers. I have a feeling the CIA is getting its revenge at last.

[w8liftinglady]

28. thank god-someone has found their conscience

[The Wizard]

44. Shocked I tell you

The Administration chose to dump all its faults on the CIA. They have uncovered agents and programs that took years to develop. They have made recruiting new agents that much more difficult. The have made establishing networks more difficult. It wouldn't be a surprise if the CIA was giving false information to Poppy. Hopefully, before too much damage is done to our country, someone will find a stained blue dress. That's the only thing Republicans care about any more. Payback is a bitch.
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn the President is a liar and killing people predicated on lies. :kick:

[wordpix2]

65. the "someone" is a lot of people - I guess they're not happy with * either

[stevedeshazer]

19. Here we go again. How much is too much?

Jeez, what's it gonna take? This is Bushco Bullshit story number i.

That trailer in the captioned photograph looks like about eight bazillion that I share the road with every day (I'm a truck driver.) There's nothing special about it as far as I can see.

There must be millions of these on the road every day in the US alone, aside from all the rolling stock in other countries.

"Mobile Biological Laboratories" my ass.

On another note, why is MSNBC in such a hurry to discredit their major benefactor all of a sudden? :wow:

[Danieljay]

20. I just had this crazy thought...put on your tinfoil hat..

Its all run by a group of about 12 men smoking cigars in a dark room. They benefit by huge corporate profits and meet each morning to discuss world events. They pull enough strings to keep Jr. President until one day they actually realize that this dimwitted idiot, initially thought harmless but helpful, is actually STUPID enough to start a nuclear war and think, "this guy is for real! He really DOES think he's supposed to bring about world war III and the apocolypse. If this be the case, we ALL die and our many mansions and riches won't do ANYONE any good. We need to start pulling some strings, fast to bring this guy down."

so...the shit begins to pour down on poor Georgie. Unfortunately, the snowball is already running to fast too far down hill.. and .... damnnnnn..

never mind.

[ClintonTyree]

36. Oh, you mean....

the Bilderbergers! No :tinfoilhat: necessary. It's entirely plausible.

[file83]

58. It would be ironic if the people with "real power" were trying to

take Bush down due to his recent displays of intending to start a nuclear war because he might spoil "their" (the people with "real power") plans for global domination through spreading a world wide deadly virus.

That would be very ironic. :tinfoilhat:

[fooj]

21. Treasonous, rat bastards!

:grr:

[Sleepless In NY]

24. kick and recommended

[obiwan]

26. I remember it well...

About this time, the Preznit was in Russia "looking into Vladimir's eyes". When a pool reporter asked him about the trailers, Bush said that "we have found the weapons of mass destruction." I'm surprised Vladimir didn't start licking his chops then and there.

And now there's Iran...

George Bush is a sociopath of the worst order. The Rapture seems to be this idiot's self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't want to be a part of this, but I haven't figured out a way to get off the planet yet.

[flyarm]

60. idiot son was in poland and was asked about the mobile labs and

he boldly lied his ass off that they were found ..and at the same time i was in paris and it was on the front pages of the papers that it was all lies..it was in the international herald..and i had the hotel conseierge ( sp?) read the front pages of the frecnh papers to me..and they basically said * was a big fat fucking liar..and so was powell..it was also in the british papers..that powell plagerized a college kids 12 yr old disertation paper..and used it as US intelligence..the entire world knew blivit was lying..and yet our media didn't say a word..so as far as i am concerned..they are equally responsible for all the fucking lies as if the lies came off their tongues!!

fly

[madrchsod]

27. intelligent people knew this was bull shit at the time

he conjured up this tale. oh well the american press decided to come out of hiding now that the president is polling below 40%.fuck them they cheered all the way into iraq and watched and said jack shit about the tens of thousands who have been maimed and died..fuck them all

[RagAss]

67. Amen......fuck them all.....

[ThoughtCriminal]

29. They were ID'd as baloon trucks as soon as the photos

hit the net. But Powell's cartoon drawing sure had the freepers convinced.

[ClintonTyree]

37. They're STILL convinced!

Not listening to or watching anything but Rush or Hannity they don't know that this has been de-bunked. I'm constantly beating Republicans down who still believe this to be true. They only believe what they want to believe. How many still believe that Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks? About 30%.....isn't that fucking amazing!

[sofa king]

31. Someone oughta put those trailers up their arses, sideways.

Cheney continued to bring up his beloved trailers long after the President himself tried to pretend he never mentioned them in Poland.

Dicks.

[malaise]

32. These goons are

the quintessence of evil. To the Hague.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

38. I am getting real tired of being right...

And I suppose many of my fellow DUers are as well.

Back in 2003 when he made this claim, we screamed that these trailers were in no way, shape or form, weapons labs. Hell, we knew better days after Powell's speech at the U.N. And now that the MSM has caught up to us Yet Again, we'll hear the same old lame defenses of how * misspoke, he means well, blah blah blah, and that this kind of revelation will only hurt the troops and help the terrorists.

Meanwhile, it was this kind of lie that got those troops over there in the first place, and gave the terrorists/insurgents a reason to exist in Iraq to begin with.

You lied and sent good men and women to die for nothing, bunnypants. There is no higher form of treason.

[Ganja Ninja]

39. We put the hunt for Bin Laden on the back burner to go after ...

this crap. Bush ought to be hung for treason.

[Roland99]

41. Is there ANYTHING this administration has told the truth about???

[DemonFighterLives]

45. Not that I know of

Unless it was some lame ass thing about Barney.
:dem:

[wordpix2]

66. * DID say we need to stop the oil addiction. But then, his Arab puppetmas

ters told him to knock it off and by the next day, * said his statement shouldn't be taken literally.

So, I guess not, he's a total liar all around.

[Warren Stupidity]

42. I only have one question.

Is there anything that they haven't lied about?

[Vinca]

43. If Bush tells you the sky is blue, you'd better open a window,

stick your head out and see for yourself.

[paparush]

46. WHAT IS IT GOING TO FUCKING TAKE????

Is Bush going to have to sacrfice an infant on national telivision for Amurika to realize he is an evil, lying bastard??? What's it going to take? A mushroom cloud over Tehran?

[gatorboy]

47. Even that might not sway the masses....

Masses: "Oh, my...A mushroom cloud....Well, mushrooms are good on pizza, so it can't be THAT bad....Right?

[in_cog_ni_to]

54. A Monica Lewinsky giving him a blow job on National TV, apparently.

:grr:

[wordpix2]

68. it is going to take a DEMOCRAT CONGRESS & I'm not talkin dinos

[SeveneightyWhoa]

73. Ahem..

That's DEMOCRATIC.

[librechik]

48. The L key on my 'puter is falling off cuz of these criminals

and a pit is forming on my shift key from holding it down for the exclamation point.

can I sue them for lying?

[erpowers]

49. Biggest Liar

At this point I do not think there is any person who can claim that Bush is not the biggest liar this country has had as president. We can definitely start asking the question "How do you know Bush is lying" and then give the answer "He is moving his mouth". For eight years Republicans branded Bill Clinton a major liar. Now Bush makes Clinton look like one of the most honest president in American history.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

50. i was curious to see the right-wing reaction to this

but shockingly, this news story is not posted on any of the sites I checked. :eyes:

[in_cog_ni_to]

52. Oh, come on people!

At least the psycho-in-chief isn't lying about BLOW JOBS! COME ON! This is just a lie about a WAR! sheesh!:eyes:

:sarcasm:

[NightOwwl]

55. "The biggest sand toilets in the world."

This is how the trailers were referred to by the Pentagon-sponsored team of experts and scientists.

Oh how I would love for a reporter to ask Scottie how Buscho was able to morph the biggest sand toilets in the world into world-threatening WMDs.

[Marr]

56. MSNBC needs to offer a mea culpa as well- all the big media outlets do.

The information was out there, even as Bush was making his ludicrous claims. I remember seeing the diagrams and real descriptions of these "bio weapons labs" posted on blogs just hours after they were found.

These big corporate media outlets ran with the story and pimped it just as hard as they could. Never bothered offering the (very available) facts.

[Ron Green]

57. CNN just gave this several minutes, and Jack Cafferty went back to it when

it was his turn. This is looking promising, I tell ya. Also, David Gergen can't seem to come up with a scenario to save the Chimp at this stage of the game. Maybe we've finally turned the corner on these lying bastards.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

59. ...echoes... "What did the President know and when did he know it?"

Can you say Nixon?

[wordpix2]

69. he knew enough early enough that we could impeach him with a Dem Congress

[OzarkDem]

64. News media CYA

This is bullshit. Anyone with half a brain back then knew the Bush administration was making these stories up.

The only reason people fell for it is because the NEWS MEDIA VALIDATED IT by never questioning the lies and half truths and repeating them endlessly, 24/7 as if they were gospel.

Bush never could have managed this propaganda campaign without the full knowledge and cooperation of the news media.

The news media needs to be held accountable as much as the Bush administration. They were partners in crime.

[wordpix2]

70. I totally agree, M$M is complicit in these crimes.

[Clarkie1]

71. Fucking bastards. n/t

[flyarm]

72. the fraud by our media about these labs!! links from my files!

and our media knew nothing about this ????????? bullshit Tony Blair was in big trouble about these mobile labs and it was all over the papers in Britian ..and yet we heard not a word in our USA media!..and our media is just now finding put Powell lied to the un..bullshit pure bullshit! our media has the blood of our troops dripping from its hands..i hope their souls rot in hell!
from my files..


http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,971562,00.html
Blix attacks Blair warnings over Iraqi weapons

Nicholas Watt, John Hooper and Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday June 6, 2003
The Guardian
snip:
A former UN inspector, Bernd Birkicht, 39, said he believed the CIA had made up intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to provide a legal basis for the war. He told the Guardian how supposedly top-secret, high-quality intelligence had led the inspectors on an absurd wild goose chase.

"We received information about a site, giving the exact geographical coordinates, and when we got there we found nothing. Nothing on the ground. Nothing under the ground. Just desert."

He said the so-called decontamination trucks which figured in satellite photographs presented to the security council were fire engines.

President Bush, in Qatar, yesterday, said: "We'll reveal the truth. But one thing is certain: no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because it is no more."



http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,973110,00.html
Blow to Blair over 'mobile labs'
Observer, Sunday June 8 2003
Peter Beaumont and Antony Barnett
Tony Blair faces a fresh crisis over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, as evidence emerges that two vehicles that he has repeatedly claimed to be Iraqi mobile biological warfare production units are nothing of the sort. The intelligence agency MI6, British defence officers and technical experts from the Porton Down microbiological research establishment have been (...)

(...) fresh crisis over Iraq's alleged weapons of...be Iraqi mobile biological warfare production units...Atlantic that the trucks could have (...)
Saddam's trucks were for balloons, not (...)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4893659-103532,00.html
Germans accuse US over Iraq weapons claim

Luke Harding in Berlin
Friday April 2, 2004

Guardian

snip:

An Iraqi defector nicknamed Curveball who wrongly claimed that Saddam Hussein had mobile chemical weapons factories was last night at the centre of a bitter row between the CIA and Germany's intelligence agency. German officials said that they had warned American colleagues well before the Iraq war that Curveball's information was not credible - but the warning was ignored.
It was the Iraqi defector's testimony that led the Bush administration to claim that Saddam had built a fleet of trucks and railway wagons to produce anthrax and other deadly germs. In his presentation to the UN security council in February last year, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, explicitly used Curveball's now discredited claims as justification for war. The Iraqis were assembling "mobile production facilities for biological agents", Mr Powell said, adding that his information came from "a solid source".

These "killer caravans" allowed Saddam to produce anthrax "on demand", it was claimed. US officials never had direct access to the defector, and have subsequently claimed that the Germans misled them. Yesterday, however, German agents told Die Zeit newspaper that they had warned the Bush administration long before last year that there were "problems" with Curveball's account. "We gave a clear credibility assessment. On our side at least, there were no tricks before Colin Powell's presentation," one source told the newspaper.

Officially, Germany's intelligence agency, the BND, has refused to comment. The revelation is embarrassing for the Bush administration and appears to bolster the contention that it used dubious intelligence in a partisan manner in the critical few weeks before the invasion of Iraq.



and our "MEDIA" is just now reporting on this????????????
http://www.guardian.co.uk/butler/story/0,,1258766,00.html
Did our spies let us down?

This week, Lord Butler will deliver his verdict on how the West came to misjudge Saddam's arsenal of deadly weapons. Intelligence agencies are in the firing line. But the government, too, may have cause to fear his findings. Special report by Gaby Hinsliff, Jason Burke, Paul Harris and Antony Barnett

Sunday July 11, 2004
The Observer
snip:

There was only one point of substance on which the British disagreed with the US: the claim in the September dossier that Saddam had tried to buy uranium in Niger, seized on as evidence of an attempt by Saddam to build a nuclear bomb. MI6 believed it; American analysts did not. However, the British view still has some support: last week's Senate report appeared to confirm that some Iraqi inquiries were made. The British also strongly resisted American conclusions that Saddam had co-operated with al-Qaeda, a claim British ministers went out of their way to knock down.

Bush eventually ignored the CIA's concerns and raised the Niger issue in his State of the Union address, but he was careful to source the claim to Britain, giving the administration room to back away from it when the CIA's scepticism became public.

'Calling the Niger intelligence somewhat flawed is being very polite about what happened. "Fucked up" would be more accurate,' said Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and ex-deputy director of the State Department's Office of Counter-Terrorism.

snip********************
A third defector unearthed said he had helped develop mobile weapons labs in specially imported Renault refrigerator trucks, a claim that surfaced not only in the British dossier, but also in a speech by Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, to the UN in February 2003 setting out its case for war. They turned out to be control systems for weather balloons.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,953605,00.html
US rivals turn on each other as weapons search draws a blank

One key argument for war was the peril from weapons of mass destruction. Now top officials are worried by repeated failures to find the proof - and US intelligence agencies are engaged in a struggle to avoid the blame

Paul Harris and Martin Bright in London, Taji and Ed Helmore in New York
Sunday May 11, 2003
The Observer


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2049755&mesg_id=2050800

proof powell is a lying sac of crap from my files!! i have saved in my files ..for this day to prove powell is a lying sac of garbage!! fly


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


UK war dossier a sham, say experts
British 'intelligence' lifted from academic articles

Michael White and Brian Whitaker
Sunday February 9, 2003

Guardian
snip:

Downing Street was last night plunged into acute international embarrassment after it emerged that large parts of the British government's latest dossier on Iraq - allegedly based on "intelligence material" - were taken from published academic articles, some of them several years old.
Amid charges of "scandalous" plagiarism on the night when Tony Blair attempted to rally support for the US-led campaign against Saddam Hussein, Whitehall's dismay was compounded by the knowledge that the disputed document was singled out for praise by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, in his speech to the UN security council on Wednesday.

Citing the British dossier, entitled Iraq - its infrastructure of concealment, deception and intimidation in front of a worldwide television audience Mr Powell said: "I would call my colleagues' attention to the fine paper that the United Kingdom distributed... which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities."

But on Channel 4 News last night it was revealed that four of the report's 19 pages had been copied - with only minor editing and a few insertions - from the internet version of an article by Ibrahim al-Marashi which appeared in the Middle East Review of International Affairs last September.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4600667-103550,0...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Downing St admits blunder on Iraq dossier
Plagiarism row casts shadow over No 10's case against Saddam

Michael White, Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday February 10, 2003

Guardian



snip:
It emerged yesterday that the dossier issued last week - later found to include a plagiarised section written by an American PhD student - was compiled by mid-level officials in Alastair Campbell's Downing Street communications department with only cursory approval from intelligence or even Foreign Office sources.

Though it now appears to have been a journalistic cut and paste job rather than high-grade intelligence analysis, the dossier ended up being cited approvingly on worldwide TV by the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, when he addressed the UN security council on Wednesday.

Downing Street yesterday toughed it out, insisting that what mattered was that the facts contained in the document were "solid" and helped make the case Tony Blair rammed home on BBC Newsnight. But the middle section of the dossier, which describes the feared Iraqi intelligence network, was taken, much of it verbatim, from the research of Dr Ibrahim al-Marashi without his knowledge or permission.

"In retrospect we should have acknowledged . The fact that we used some of his work does not throw into question the accuracy of the document as a whole, as he himself acknowledged on Newsnight last night, where he said that in his opinion the document overall was accurate," the No 10 spokesman conceded. "We all have lessons to learn," he added. The four officials originally named on the website version of the 19-page dossier include Alison Blackshaw, Mr Campbell's senior assistant, and Murtaza Khan, described as a news editor on the busy Downing Street website.

Professor Michael Clark, director of the International Policy Institute at King's College London, said presenting such intelligence material "invalidates the veracity" of the rest of the document. The shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, called for a cabinet minister to oversee government information on Iraq.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4601552-103690,0...




xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

US claims on Iraq called into question
Inspectors pick holes in Powell allegations and call for patience in carefully coded message to council

Jonathan Steele
Monday February 17, 2003

Guardian


http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4606426-103550,0...

[w8liftinglady]

74. by doing this,they are complicit in 2370 american murders...and who knows

..how many iraqi deaths

[wu here]

75. Is lying by Bush only an impeachable offense if done under oath?

There are so many lies that come from this administration it is hard to keep track of them all.
The problem is the press doesn't call them on it. They are complicit in the conspiracy. This whole GW Bush era is a conspiracy. It is one lie and misleading statement after another and we let them get away with it every time. They've made a mockery of our government. Our prez thinks he's is on a mission from god. The Constitution allows for us, the people, to get rid of an unjust government. Exactly how is that done?

[Dr Fate]

76. Are any Democrats going to go on TV and call Bush a "liar"?

And use that word?

If not, why?

Before you answer, think what Republicans (you know, those guys who WIN their elections) would do if this were Clinton, Gore or Kerry.