Iraq WMD report to lay blame on CIA (The Guardian)

[Up2Late]

Iraq WMD report to lay blame on CIA

Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday March 31, 2005
The Guardian

A final analysis of the intelligence fiasco over Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction will today focus blame on the CIA and other spy agencies, largely clearing the White House and the Pentagon of allegations that they shaped the intelligence to justify the invasion, according to early accounts of the report.

The assessment by a presidential commission on WMD intelligence follows 14 months of mostly secret inquiries in an undisclosed location in Virginia. It reportedly concentrates on mistakes in a multi-agency assessment in October 2002, the national intelligence estimate, which portrayed Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes as a serious threat to the US. A year-long search by the US Iraq survey group later concluded that those programmes had collapsed more than a decade before the invasion.

The commission is expected to release a 400-page unclassified version of its report after delivering a complete version to George Bush this morning. According to leaks, the commission found that many of the intelligence shortcomings on Iraq are being repeated on Iran and North Korea. In all three cases, the commission is said to have found that human intelligence - actual spies - are in short supply, and intelligence has relied on satellite pictures, electronic intercepts, the testimony of exiles and guesswork.

The Los Angeles Times yesterday quoted officials who had read some of the unclassified report as saying it pointed to "glaring gaps in core US intelligence" about nuclear programmes pursued by Tehran and Pyongyang. According to the Washington Post the report will recommend that, in the light of "group think" over Iraq, dissent and debate should be encouraged among the nation's 15 intelligence agencies.

(more at link above)

[Carolab]

1. Here's the rest (and most important part)--the BLAME SHIFTING

However, there will be relatively little scrutiny of alleged political pressure by senior administration officials to exaggerate the WMD claims. "There's nothing really about shaping the intelligence," said an intelligence source in Washington familiar with the report.

A Senate inquiry into political manipulation of intelligence, postponed until after the November elections, now appears to have been quietly dropped by its Republican chairman, Pat Roberts.

Ray McGovern, a former CIA official and persistent government critic, said the report was diverting the blame. "I see it as part of the continuing attempt to blame the CIA and other intelligence agencies and divert attention away from the White House and the Pentagon. It's worse than Butler , or anything you've had over there."

Dick Cheney made several trips to the CIA's Langley headquarters in the months before the war to discuss findings on Iraq's alleged WMD, and the agency's ombudsman told the Senate that analysts had undergone constant "hammering" to come up with a connection between al-Qaida and Saddam.

However, none of the CIA employees who testified before the Senate intelligence committee on the issue last year admitted changing their analysis to suit the administration's wishes.

Today's report is expected to find that political pressure was not a significant factor, although it will advocate the creation of an ombudsman to hear from analysts who fear their work is being compromised, according to the Washington Post.

It will reportedly include criticism of the Defence Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, both under the Pentagon's control. But the burden of blame will fall once more on the CIA.

"I'm told it is going to make the CIA look even worse than before," said Melvin Goodman, a former CIA official. As for top administration officials, Mr Goodman said: "It looks like they're going to escape again."

[Theduckno2]

5. Remembering numerous reasons....

But WMD was the one that EVERYONE COULD AGREE ON. I think that was Wolfewitz. War in Iraq was an objective from the onset, just ask Secretary O'neil. I think back to the advice of my HS Drivers Ed teacher: "Ignorance is no excuse, just because you didn't see the speed limit sign doesn't mean you won't get the ticket!" There were plenty of signs that Iraq didn't have WMD and Bush still chose to go to war. It really upsets me that George Bush gets somebody to fall(wait he is pushing them) onto their sword.

[Frederik]

89. That was Wolfie all right

"WMD was a bureaucratic decision, it was something everybody could agree on"

The World Bank is in such good hands.

[Roland99]

12. Of course, we can't have the PNAC Neocon bastards be held accountable

how would that reflect on our bright and shining Propagandist...er...President?

[yorkiemommie1]

21. the buck stops... WHERE????

just short of the WH.

[Carolab]

47. Thus the "purge" of the CIA. n/t

[cyclezealot]

90. I called Senators today..Furious that the Administration is blameless.

A news report said Sen Harry Reid felt it a travesty the Administration was blameless in this story of sloppy intelligence...
You cited Cheney's trips to the CIA..Which is unheard of ..The CIA is supposed to be independent...How else can the intelligence be unfiltered from knowledgeable field operatives...
I am furious...Cheney's trips..They minipulated the news to their liking, so as to formulate a pre-determined policy..
We can't let them get away with this...Now with Goss and Negropointe manipulating news gathering...You control the news sources , you control events...
are we men or mice..Can't let them get away with this con game...Call someone *itching ok, please..
Ex Sen. Chuck Robb was on this investigative committee.. What the hell is wrong with him...Anyone know how to contact him...
I called Sen. Stabenow because she is from Michigan and third in line of Democratic leadership.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

93. OSP OSP OSP OSP OSP .....Pentagon's secert "OFFICE OF SPECIAL PLANS"......

Cheney, Fieth, Wolfowitz, Perle, Chalabi, & Curveball!

[sadiesworld]

2. The Office of Special Plans falls down the memory hole, I see.

No big surprise, but still appalling.

[Erika]

3. Bush will just say "I told you it was someone else's fault"

He nor his administration has ever made a mistake, just ask them. In the meantime view www.icasualties.org to see those who are paying for his "errors".

[cal04]

4. A 'Curve Ball'

A 'Curve Ball'
WMD report to say Iraqi defector provided suspect information

U.S. WMD panel calls for accuracy on intel
Defector’s conduct, possible fabrication prompt warnings
President Bush’s commission on weapons of mass destruction will recommend that intelligence agencies take concrete steps to ensure information from their sources is valid, government officials familiar with the report said Wednesday.

The proposal was prompted in part by an Iraqi defector code-named “Curve Ball” who may have had a drinking problem and who provided suspect information on Saddam Hussein’s purported mobile weapons labs, officials said. The defector and the questions about his veracity have been described in recent government reports. The information the defector provided was included in the much-maligned October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a high-level collection of intelligence used by policy-makers that the White House used to argue for invading Iraq. That report said Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, but no such weapons have been found.

600-page report due Thursday
Calls to improve how information from sources is vetted before going into intelligence analyses are among dozens of recommendations expected in the over 600-page report, said government officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the report was not being released until Thursday.

The commission will stress the need for training for analysts and operatives, new procedures for considering dissenting intelligence assessments and creation of a federal office focusing on weapons proliferation, the officials said. The report will also propose updating the FBI’s computers and creating a new national security division within the Justice Department.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7331220/

(sounds more like someone else, not curve ball)

[Frederik]

92. the magic curveball

[dbt]

6. Now we will see if the CIA as a whole IS willing to take a bullet

for the fool (and/or chimp) who is selling them right down the river, no?

[ClintonTyree]

94. They've already gutted it............

anyone who MIGHT have stood up to these thugs is long gone or sweeping an office in Bismark, North Dakota. They've already taken the bullet, died and have been replaced before this report was a gleam in an investigator's eye.
Another coup, this time with the CIA being the target.

[radfringe]

7. "It looks like they're going to escape again."

"I'm told it is going to make the CIA look even worse than before," said Melvin Goodman, a former CIA official. As for top administration officials, Mr Goodman said: "It looks like they're going to escape again."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1448738,00.html
bottom of article

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Panel: Agencies 'dead wrong' on Iraq WMDs

Mar 31, 8:04 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a scathing report, a presidential commission said Thursday that America's spy agencies were "dead wrong" in most of their judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war and that the United States knows "disturbingly little" about the weapons programs and threat posed by many of the nation's most dangerous adversaries.

The commission called for dramatic change to prevent future failures. It outlined more than 70 recommendations, saying that President Bush must give John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, broaders powers for overseeing the nation's 15 spy agencies.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTELLIGENCE_COMMISSION?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


What a bunch of crap. There was nothing wrong with the Intel. It was the fact that the WH politicized the Intel and twisted it to make their case for War. Based on the Intel, Iraq was not an immediate threat.

The failure of Intelligence was the President. Too bad his hand picked commission couldn't look at what happened on the decision making level.

[Bridget Burke]

9. PRESIDENTIAL Commission finds WHITE HOUSE innocent.

Surprise, surprise.

[underpants]

11. ~"We have investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong"

Yours was worth posting twice

[Sinistrous]

27. Roger, that....

W-H-I-T-E-W-A-S-H by a bunch of bushbaby suck-ups.

Another disgusting dodge by the regime.

[Bridget Burke]

10. Accidental duplicate......please ignore.

Surprise, surprise.

[Rose Siding]

13. msnbc headline: WMD report: 'Dead wrong'

BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 8:47 a.m. ET March 31, 2005

WASHINGTON - In a scathing report released Thursday, President Bush’s commission on weapons of mass destruction found that America’s spy agencies were “dead wrong” in most of their judgments about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

The commission was also highly critical of U.S. abilities to assess what existing adversaries have, stating that the United States knows “disturbingly little” about their weapons programs.

On Saddam, the commission stated that “we conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. This was a major intelligence failure.”
....
The proposals were prompted in part by an Iraqi defector code-named “Curve Ball” who may have had a drinking problem and who provided suspect information on Saddam’s purported mobile weapons labs, officials said. The defector and the questions about his veracity have been described in recent government reports.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7331220/

[emad]

14. US 'knows little about its foes'

BBC


US intelligence agencies know "disturbingly little" about the weapons programmes of Washington's adversaries, an official report has found.

The report outlines 70 recommendations for the new US director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, who will oversee all 15 US spy agencies.

President George Bush ordered the study after the controversy over Iraq.

It says dramatic changes are needed to prevent future failures similar to the fiasco over Iraq's missing weapons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4396457.stm

[emad]

15. Iraq WMD report to lay blame on CIA: Guardian

Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday March 31, 2005
The Guardian

A final analysis of the intelligence fiasco over Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction will today focus blame on the CIA and other spy agencies, largely clearing the White House and the Pentagon of allegations that they shaped the intelligence to justify the invasion, according to early accounts of the report.

The assessment by a presidential commission on WMD intelligence follows 14 months of mostly secret inquiries in an undisclosed location in Virginia. It reportedly concentrates on mistakes in a multi-agency assessment in October 2002, the national intelligence estimate, which portrayed Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes as a serious threat to the US.

A year-long search by the US Iraq survey group later concluded that those programmes had collapsed more than a decade before the invasion.

The commission is expected to release a 400-page unclassified version of its report after delivering a complete version to George Bush this morning. According to leaks, the commission found that many of the intelligence shortcomings on Iraq are being repeated on Iran and North Korea.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1448738,00.html

ALDRICH AMES must be pissing himself in the slammer.....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

16. Report: WMD Intelligence Was 'Dead Wrong'

March 31, 2005
Report: WMD Intelligence Was 'Dead Wrong'

By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - In a scathing report, a presidential commission said Thursday that America's spy agencies were "dead wrong" in most of their judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war and that the United States knows "disturbingly little" about the weapons programs and threats posed by many of the nation's most dangerous adversaries.

Read the entire report
http://wid.ap.org/documents/050331wmdreport.pdf

The commission called for dramatic change to prevent future failures. It outlined more than 70 recommendations, saying that President Bush must give John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, broader powers for overseeing the nation's 15 spy agencies.

It also called for sweeping changes at the FBI to combine the bureau's counterterrorism and counterintelligence resources into a new office.


more >

http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=76146

[chelsea0011]

17. And Pres. Cluless Murderer will address the findings at 11:40 AM

I wonder what he will say. I think "Iraqi Freedom" will be mentioned.

[sniffa]

18. "we were aLL wrong"

the cia, the fbi, john kerry, hiLLary cLinton, barbara streisand, michaeL moore, harry reid, biLL cLinton, janet reno, jimmy carter, aL franken, whoopi goLdberg, sean penn, john edwards... yes, everyone; aLL wrong.

[formerrepuke]

19. Just keep repeating: "Saddam bad man...September 11th.."

[Goldeneye]

20. A day to early for April fools....hmmmm.

What have we here? Bush was wrong and the media's reporting it? my, my, my...

[Charles19]

22. Everyone keeps saying they weere "dead wrong" when....

the reality is they "got fooled" (and they were "dead wrong").

Saddam Hussein wanted everyone to percieve he still had strong weapons so no one would mess with him. This obviously didn't work that well because people (the US) certainly messed with him. However within the confines of his own country he ruled by fear.

I am most disturbed not so much about the intelligence people being wrong, but that their assessment was so skewed by Saddam fooling them and Cheney pushing them to buy into this.

We pay these people a lot of money to find the truth, not to paint a picture of fear so the President can overthrow other governments.

[adigal]

23. Look for the CIA to leak memos from Cheney/Rumsfeld

Do you think they are going to take the blame for this?? There is no love lost between the White House and this group, especially after Porter Goss came in.

Watch the memos fly to the front page of the NY Times.

[winston61]

24. what the report does not say

As always in politics the real message is not what is said, but rather what is left un-said. Plenty of blame for intelligence gathering. But not one critical word for the policy makers. Were George, Dick and Donald poor little babes in the woods making decisions based on bad Intel? Hardly. These bastards came into office hot to take out Saddam. September 11 2001 delivered a golden chance to begin the campaign of lies. They were delighted to stand on the corpses of the 9/11 dead and tell us one lie after another. The message to the Intel services was clear. Tell me what I want to hear (not the truth) or I will destroy you and then find someone who will do what I tell them to do(hello Porter?). So the administration can now wipe the blood off their hands onto the Intel boys and walk away all 'pure and innocent'. So now we get another 'official' report suitable only for wiping our asses with. What a government.

[Up2Late]

25. Update: US 'knows little about its foes' (BBC News)

US 'knows little about its foes'

US intelligence agencies know "disturbingly little" about the weapons programmes of Washington's adversaries, an official report has found.

Thursday, 31 March, 2005, 14:52 GMT 15:52 UK

It outlines about 70 recommendations for the new US director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, who will oversee all 15 US spy agencies. The report says dramatic changes are needed to prevent failures similar to the fiasco over Iraq's missing weapons. The White House, which ordered the study, has welcomed its conclusions.

Several independent inquiries have already examined the role that intelligence played in the run-up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. But the current commission, led by Judge Laurence Silberman and former Senator Charles Robb, is the only inquiry ordered directly by President George W Bush. "The intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the panel concluded. "We simply cannot afford failures of this magnitude," it added.

Looking beyond Iraq, the report said: "The bad news is that we still know disturbingly little about the weapons programs and even less about the intentions of many of our most dangerous adversaries." In response White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration would "act on those recommendations in a fairly quick period of time".

(more at link above)

[movie_girl99]

28. my first thought is

un fucking believable. But it's so effing par for the course. I loved the part that read "In all three cases, the commission is said to have found that human intelligence - actual spies - are in short supply, and intelligence has relied on satellite pictures, electronic intercepts, the testimony of exiles and guesswork."

who the hell wants to be a "spy" when they know their cover can/will be blown at any given moment like Plame was.

[Up2Late]

26. Update:US spies 'dead wrong' on Iraq WMD (Guardian)

US spies 'dead wrong' on Iraq WMD

Mark Oliver and agencies
Thursday March 31, 2005
Guardian Unlimited

Read the full report

US spy agencies were "dead wrong" in "almost all" of their judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capability, a commission appointed by the US president said in a final report today. The damning report described the failures as "major" and said US intelligence still knew "disturbingly little" about the weapons programmes in other potentially dangerous nations. The report called for dramatic change to prevent any repeat of the mistakes made over Iraq.

An unclassified version of the report released to the public by the White House does not go into significant detail on the intelligence community's abilities in Iran and North Korea, but those details are understood to be included in a classified version.

The commission was formed a year ago by George Bush to investigate intelligence failures in Iraq. Both the Bush administration and Downing Street claimed Saddam Hussein had hidden large stockpiles of WMD as a prime justification for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the aftermath of the invasion, no WMD were found.Today's report outlines more than 70 recommendations aimed at improving the US intelligence services. It said President Bush should give John Negroponte, the new director of US national intelligence, broader powers for overseeing the nation's 15 spy agencies.

The report also called for sweeping changes at the FBI to combine the bureau's counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence resources into a new office. The commission said in its report to Mr Bush: "We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This was a major intelligence failure."

(more at link above)

[Moderator]

29. kick to combine

[tuvor]

30. Panel: Agencies 'Dead Wrong' on Iraq WMDs

WASHINGTON - In a scathing report, a presidential commission said Thursday that America's spy agencies were "dead wrong" in most of their judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war and that the United States knows "disturbingly little" about the threats posed by many of the nation's most dangerous adversaries.

The commission called for dramatic change to prevent future failures. It outlined 74 recommendations and said President Bush could implement most of them without action by Congress. It urged Bush to give broader powers to John Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, to deal with challenges to his authority from the CIA, Defense Department or other elements of the nation's 15 spy agencies.

It also called for sweeping changes at the FBI to combine the bureau's counterterrorism and counterintelligence resources into a new office.

<snip>

The report implicitly absolves the Bush administration of manipulating the intelligence used to launch the 2003 Iraq war, putting the blame for bad intelligence directly on the intelligence community.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&e=2&u=/ap/intelligence_commission

I say bullshit:

Why the CIA thinks Bush is wrong
The president says the US has to act now against Iraq. The trouble is, his own security services don't agree.
13 October 2002
http://www.sundayherald.com/28384

CIA in blow to Bush attack plans
The letter also comes at a time when the CIA is competing with the more hawkish Pentagon, which is also supplying the White House with intelligence on the Iraqi threat.
October 10, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,808970,00.html

White House 'exaggerating Iraqi threat'
Bush's televised address attacked by US intelligence
October 9, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,807286,00.html

[adigal]

31. We'll see through leaked memos what the CIA

thinks of this report. Now that the presidential commission has thrown the anvil at the intelligence agencies, they may start leaking the real story.

[cdb]

32. absolves the Bush administration?

Of course it does, because it's all Clintons fault. Just remember, anything bad is due to Clinton, anything good is attributed to b*sh. Thats what the freepers are going on about.

[Crankie Avalon]

33. CORRECTED: Report: U.S. Intelligence 'Dead Wrong' on Iraq

CORRECTED: Report: U.S. Intelligence 'Dead Wrong' on Iraq

2 minutes ago U.S. National - Reuters

By Steve Holland and Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence on Iraq was "dead wrong," dealing a blow to American credibility that will take years to undo, and spymasters still know disturbingly little about nuclear programs in countries like Iran and North Korea, a presidential commission reported on Thursday.

The commission's bluntly written report, based on more than a year of investigations, offered a damning assessment of the intelligence that President Bush used to launch the Iraq war two years ago and warned that flaws are still all too common throughout spy agencies.

"We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the commissioners wrote.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/security_usa_intelligence_dc

[Botany]

34. No "they" got the intel "they" wanted .....

Look @ Cheney's and Pearle's special projects office in the pentagon.

Intel knew what the result which bush & cheney wanted and gave them it.

[kysrsoze]

35. Precisely. A lot of the info was dead-ON. They just ignored those bits

Or even worse, harassed the people who brought forth the correct info.

[malachi]

41. Exactly. Great article by Seymour Hersh - The Stovepipe

How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact

[AlCzervik]

44. Thats right, bush co picked the stuff they needed to build their

case and checked the rest. When will there ever be some accountability??

[ewagner]

36. I'm so angry I'm spitting...

there is a ton of evidence that the intelligence agencies knew George W and his merry band of imperialists were lying about Iraq...

Everybody knew they were lying....

and now this report says the intelligence agencies were the ones that were wrong!!!!

this is the worst cover-up I've ever seen...

when will somebody finally tell the truth? Who will finally tell the truth?

[Botany]

37. The truth is out there but the media can not or will not report.

Col. Janice Kozniski (SP) reported all this 1.5 year ago. She worked in the special
projects office.

[ewagner]

39. She is one

of the people who know the truth....

there are others and they aren't getting any air time at all...

[wiggs]

42. Kwiatkowsy? nt

[atreides1]

38. Go figure

So now we have 1529 dead, over 10,000 wounded, and up to at least 200,000 Iraqis killed.

Iraq is unstable at best, and the fighting continues, people continue to die, and it was all the fault of the big bad intelligence
community.

[JohnyCanuck]

40. What a joke.

No mention I suppose of republican/neocon hangers on, amateurs and personnel with no intelligence (in all senses of the word) background being brought in to staff Rummy's specially created "intelligence" agency (the Office of Special Plans) - their main function apparently being to cherry pick the stuff Bush and his gang of cut-throats and oil robber barons wanted to hear in order to get the invasion they had long planned for under way.

The Spies Who Pushed for War
The Guardian, July 17, 2003

<snip>

According to former Bush officials, all defence and intelligence sources, senior administration figures created a shadow agency of Pentagon analysts staffed mainly by ideological amateurs to compete with the CIA and its military counterpart, the Defence Intelligence Agency.

The agency, called the Office of Special Plans (OSP), was set up by the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to second-guess CIA information and operated under the patronage of hardline conservatives in the top rungs of the administration, the Pentagon and at the White House, including Vice-President Dick Cheney.

<snip>

The OSP had access to a huge amount of raw intelligence. It came in part from "report officers" in the CIA's directorate of operations whose job is to sift through reports from agents around the world, filtering out the unsubstantiated and the incredible. Under pressure from the hawks such as Mr Cheney and Mr Gingrich, those officers became reluctant to discard anything, no matter how far-fetched. The OSP also sucked in countless tips from the Iraqi National Congress and other opposition groups, which were viewed with far more scepticism by the CIA and the state department.

There was a mountain of documentation to look through and not much time. The administration wanted to use the momentum gained in Afghanistan to deal with Iraq once and for all. The OSP itself had less than 10 full-time staff, so to help deal with the load, the office hired scores of temporary "consultants". They included lawyers, congressional staffers, and policy wonks from the numerous rightwing thinktanks in Washington. Few had experience in intelligence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html

[Up2Late]

46. This is a sad Re-run, C.I.A. "Team B" ver. 2.0,

Same story, different villian.:mad:

Here's a post I just put up in GD: Politics under:
"New" WMD report Smells like C.I.A. "Team B" ver.2.0

(All material here comes from: "Think Again: Team 'B' by Eric Alterman October 30, 2003 at <http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF... > Click link for the full article)

Think Again: Team 'B'

by Eric Alterman
October 30, 2003

...But to fully understand the nature of the crisis imposed on the CIA and other intelligence professionals by the Bush administration, journalists need to study up on a little history, as we have all been to this movie before. As American Progress fellow Lawrence Korb told a gathering I hosted at the World Policy Institute at New School University in New York last week, “the agency has never recovered from ‘Team B.’”

Many of the very same people who deliberately created the misimpression about Iraq to goad the American people into supporting a war had already executed a run-through of the same strategy in the 1970s. Back then, establishment hardliners associated with the now defunct “Committee on the Present Danger” heaped scorn upon the professional intelligence services for their alleged underestimation of Soviet military capabilities. They succeeded in convincing then-CIA Director, George H.W. Bush, to appoint a now infamous "Team B" to go through the same material and come up with an answer that would justify a vast increase in U.S. defense spending. With the powerful political patronage of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, its members, including Paul Wolfowitz, came up with astronomical numbers for alleged Soviet military spending and capabilities. As Newsweek’s Farred Zakaria, a moderately conservative war supporter, has observed, “In retrospect, Team B’s conclusions were wildly off the mark.” It argued, for instance, that back in 1976, the Soviets enjoyed "a large and expanding Gross National Product." It credited them with double the number Backfire bombers the nation could actually produce. It turns out that even the CIA’s much pilloried estimates for Soviet military capabilities were far too generous. Sounding very much as if he were talking about Iraqi WMD capabilities 30 years later, Rumsfeld claimed, “No doubt exists about the capabilities of the Soviet armed forces.”

In fact, in 1989 the agency admitted that, contrary to the Team B analysis, it had "substantially overestimated" the Soviet threat in almost every aspect. And these same Neoconservatives proved extremely critical of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush’s efforts to join with Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War and frequently advised the president and public that both "glasnost" and "perestroika" were "just a trick" to lull the West into subservience. For instance, as late as November 1987, when the rest of the world was extremely eager to take advantage of the chances Gorbachev offered, the United States was hobbled in its efforts to recognize the new reality by neoconservative commentators who, like Charles Krauthammer, complained, "We don't know if Gorbachev is sincere. If he is, we don't know whether he will succeed in winning over his bureaucracy. If he does, we don't know if he will last."...

link to post <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1697293&mesg_id=1697293>

[wiggs]

43. THE BUSH DOCTRINE IS THE PROBLEM

While a determined effort is being made to point fingers at intelligence agencies, let's not forget two things:

The pentagon, under Rumsfeld, had its own intelligence effort. Who should take the blame for that?

The radical Bush Doctrine requires perfect intelligence gathering to be considered reasonable. Why are we focusing on bad intelligence when it is well known that intelligence is an inaccurate art? THE BLAME SHOULD FALL SQUARELY ON THE BUSH DOCTRINE, WHICH TAKES BAD INFORMATION AND TURNS IT INTO WAR!!

I hope that CIA folks get tired of taking the fall and come forward with the truth. But in the meantime, let's talk about what a bad idea the Bush Doctrine is...Iraq was not a preemptive war as international laws allow. Now we find out it was not even a preventative war. It was naked, illegal aggression!

Focus on BUSH DOCTRINE!! Let's not be distracted here....

[RuleofLaw]

45. For once I wishes they named names

Why is it every time one of these investigations comes out with a report it's always some faceless organizations fault?

Who? Give us some names. Who was responsible? Who authorized the faulty intelligence being passed on? Are those people still with the agency or have they been fired, and if not, why?

Its ridiculous to fault an agency. It consist of people making decisions. Hold the people accountable instead of this crap.

[Moderator]

48. kick to combine

[rodeodance]

49. (WP) Doubts on Weapons Were Dismissed (best headline on this issue yet)

"That was one among many examples -- cited over 692 pages in the report -- of fruitless dissent on the accuracy of claims against Iraq."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=716&e=18&u=/washpost/20050401/ts_washpost/a17211_2005mar31

Doubts on Weapons Were Dismissed

Fri Apr 1,12:00 AM ET




By Dafna Linzer and Barton Gellman, Washington Post Staff Writers

As former secretary of state Colin L. Powell worked into the night in a New York hotel room, on the eve of his February 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council, CIA officers sent urgent e-mails and cables describing grave doubts about a key charge he was going to make.



On the telephone that night, a senior intelligence officer warned then-CIA Director George J. Tenet that he lacked confidence in the principal source of the assertion that Saddam Hussein's scientists were developing deadly agents in mobile laboratories.

"Mr. Tenet replied with words to the effect of 'yeah, yeah' and that he was 'exhausted,' " according to testimony quoted yesterday in the report of President Bush's commission on the intelligence failures leading up to his decision to invade Iraq in March 2003.

Tenet told the commission he did not recall that part of the conversation. He relayed no such concerns to Powell, who made the germ- warfare charge a centerpiece of his presentation the next day.
More.......

[ClintonTyree]

50. Whoa,,,,,,,,,,

the freeps have been at that one. They don't like to hear anything bad about Der Fuhrer.

[rodeodance]

52. not nice is it.

[rodeodance]

53. Its current average rating is 1.92 with 245 vote(s). (you are right--some

do NOT like this story!!!!!

[DS1]

54. It's amazing that they'll still support the clown through crap like this

Can you imagine the shitstorm if Clinton had done something like this?

They'd have him in stocks on the floor of Congress

[leesa]

80. As they SHOULD if Clinton had done something like this

The GOP has lost all credibility in their support for this murderer.

[ElectroPrincess]

51. Thanks ... Rated 5 + /eom

[agates]

55. Wow, has this been freeped

Rating is down to 1.95. What are the freepers afraid of? The truth!

[rodeodance]

59. you betcha!!

......What are the freepers afraid of? The truth!.....

[Me.]

56. Let's Face It

The fix was in and they were going to get their war no matter what the truth was

[rodeodance]

57. and includes good example of 'face value" data on the 'tubes'

.....Leading analysts accepted at face value data supporting the existence of illegal weapons, the commission said, and discounted counter-evidence as skillful Iraqi deception.

The commission's anatomy of failure on Iraq's alleged nuclear weapons program is a case in point. It begins in early 2001, as Bush took office, when the CIA got its first report that Iraq was trying to buy black-market aluminum tubes. The agency swiftly concluded, after intercepting a sample in April of that year, that Iraq intended the tubes to be used in centrifuges that would enrich uranium for the core of a nuclear weapon........

[Mari333]

62. as long as they, or their loved ones dont go to war

but they dont mind letting other peoples kids go.

[Kimber Scott]

58. 2.02 w/255 How can they be so afraid of the truth that they'd send our

kids into harms way for nothing?

[rodeodance]

61. but, as I understand this report-it completely defects any blame from Bush

I have not read the entire report-but analysis by newspaper reports (have not heard this on TV comments), conclude that only the minons will be blamed).

[Kimber Scott]

65. You're right. Minions and George Tenet got a little blame, as well.

But, I think this DIA had a large hand in it, as well. Which, I could be wrong, puts a lot of the blame on the Pentagon, doesn't it?

"What followed, in the commission's account, highlights the terrible working relationships within the intelligence community, the lack of interest in getting the truth about Curveball and the ease with which the DIA discarded concerns about the case against Iraq.

The defense intelligence division chief who received the CIA e-mail forwarded it to a subordinate in an e-mail that was inadvertently copied back to the sender. In it, the division chief expressed shock at the CIA's suggestion that Curveball might be unreliable. The "CIA is up to their old tricks" and did not "have a clue" about how the source had been handled, the division chief wrote in excerpts quoted in the commission's report."

[gratuitous]

69. The commission was supposed to whitewash

Their mandate or purview was solely to look at the intelligence community, and how the information was gathered and reported to the administration. Their job was purposely NOT to analyze how the information gathered may have been influenced by the administration, or how the administration treated the intelligence it was getting, or how the administration may have influenced the gathering of intelligence. Convenient, no?

For extra credit, compare and contrast the strict adherence to its mandate of this commission with that of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who was originally deputed to investigate a failed investment by Bill and Hillary Clinton in the late 1970s in a vacation resort development proposal on the Whitewater River in Arkansas, and how that investigation came to encompass a 1997 dalliance between Mr. Clinton and a White House intern.

[papau]

74. MSM SAYS ANOTHER LIE - Report says "not authorized" to review Bush

conduct -

as in "Did he then lie/spin so as to have a war?"

But media says the fact that the field report writers say that their reports were not changed because of political pressure MUST MEAN BUSH CLEARED OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE ON OUTCOME!.

[SeanQ]

60. Back up to 2.07 - will need a lot more votes!

[UpInArms]

63. remember the "Waldorf Transcipt"?

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,968605,00.html

Transcripts raise alarm across Nato

Monday June 2, 2003

Transcripts of a private conversation between Jack Straw and Colin Powell expressing serious doubts about the reliability of intelligence on Iraq's banned weapons programme are being circulated in western government circles where there is a growing feeling that officials were deceived into supporting the Iraq war.

A document known as the "Waldorf transcripts" - after the New York hotel where the US secretary of state was staying before making a crucial speech to the UN security council earlier this year - is described by an official of one Nato country as "extremely useful".

<snip>

Diplomatic sources remain adamant, as the Guardian reported on Saturday, that Mr Straw did have a private conversation with Mr Powell in which both men expressed their concerns about the quality of the intelligence they had been given and how it was being used to bolster their governments' case for war against Iraq.

...more...

[impeachthescoundrel]

64. Just voted it up

and left it at 2.18.

[Dhalgren]

66. Up to 2.21, now...

[Demit]

67. 2.2, 275 votes

[joneschick]

68. fascinating

and sickening
Its current average rating is 2.36 with 290 vote(s).

[acmavm]

70. You know, I'm really sick of this shit, the people who try to deny and

cover and hide the sins and lies of this administration are nothing less than cowards and traitors to this country. The want to pretend that they're so damn patriotic but their actions are hurting our country, hurting the citizens of this country, and turning this place into a backward third-world hell hole complete with voodoo/superstition passing as intelligence and reason. Do these dumb asses not understand that it was a play by oil people to grab the last of the stuff before it's all gone? Don't they understand, frigging idiots, that the reason we haven't, and don't, and fucking WON'T invest in an alternative renewable non-polluting energy source is because if we did these rat bastards couldn't wring every last dime out of our pathetic oil dependent asses. Not to mention propping up a few Middle Eastern governments who just may not be so damn friendly to us and Israel if we don't keep their royal families in power.

I hate ignorant people and I am finding that each and every day that I am talking to or have met someone who says something stupid and pathetic, and I look into their eyes and I see that they really believe what they're saying. I believe that part of being ignorant is being lazy and irresponsible. These people are too damn lazy to take the time and make the effort to look for information, to find the truth.

Whatever:
You have given the news article Doubts on Weapons Were Dismissed a rating of 5.
Its current average rating is 2.26 with 280 vote(s).

[RebelOne]

71. Now at 2.45. n/t

[ElectroPrincess]

72. This is one example why I get so irritated when ...

a fellow progressive says that we are "playing too rough" when we take on the freepers directly ... like in their face retorts.

No, I would never advocate underhandedness, but BLUNT counter arguments help to even the playing field.

Like the Happy Tones Croon:

Although they're likely to prevail
All creation insists
that we try to resist
The Republicans!

[Spazito]

73. Canadian news is using the phrase 'dead wrong'

regarding the intelligence. It is appropriate in so many ways, imo.

[burythehatchet]

75. classis BFEE

"the more Curveball's credibility came into question, the more his allegations were used to bolster the case for war, the report said."

[Zorra]

76. kick

[Roland99]

77. Damn...thing was FREEPED like mad!

Morans don't realize they're backing the wrong horse. Hell, this horse deserves be sent to the glue factory.

[Arkana]

78. We knew they knew

They just didn't want to tell anyone.

[Griffy]

79. rated up.. its at 2.89 with 638 voting... nt

[The_Casual_Observer]

81. Eventually, after another year or two of losses in Iraq

they will get on with a serious investigation of chimp.

[NightOwwl]

85. Rated it a 5. Latest stats: 2.89, 725 votes

:kick:
edited to put rating stats in subject line

[Hissyspit]

95. Read LynnTheDem's Excellent Post: "Blaming CIA for WMDs. What Total..."

"Bullshit" Lots of great info and links.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3394174

[Dr Fate]

82. I did not see the CIA on TV every single day telling me about WMDs.

I DID see Bush, his cabinet and his paid "Gannon Corps" media plants doing this every day.

CIA my eye- this is Bush/media's fault.

[Roland99]

83. So, Wolfowitz/Feith and the DIA get a free pass and the CIA gets the blame

not surprising.

[NightOwwl]

84. Couldn't the CIA have potentially damning information...

on some of these higher-ups? Career-destroying information. Something along the lines of, say, who's getting it on with Gannon/Guckert/Bulldog? And if so, why aren't they leaking/coming forward with it?

[Javaman]

86. Kinda gives me the warm fuzzy's regarding Iran...

How accurate are they with them???

[young_at_heart]

87. Bush had no choice to invade since it's the CIA's fault

Will the CIA accept this without comment?

[Frederik]

88. This is going to make an Iran war less likely, isn't it?

One can always hope.

[Frederik]

91. Saw the press conference

Bush was totally exonerated of course. One of the commission members (don't remember names) said, "if you read the Woodward book, you'll find that the president did question the intelligence". And, noone had told them anything about any political pressure (they apparently hadn't asked about it either)

[brettdale]

96. Bush Intel Panel Sees Difficult Task Ahead

So Bush doesn't need congress? Is he King Bush now, not President?


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/31/national/w233029S66.DTL

[meti57b]

97. report was silent on whether bush manipulated data for political purposes

~snip~
'Robb and Silberman said they found no evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought to change the prewar intelligence in Iraq. The report was silent on whether the administration manipulated the data for political purposes, as Democrats have contended, with commission members saying they were not empowered to examine that.


Democrats, including Bush's 2004 opponent, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, used the findings to demand faster changes and to point fingers.


"The investigation will not be complete unless we know how the Bush administration may have used or misused intelligence to pursue its own agenda," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said.'
~snip~

[Minnesota_Lib]

98. How soon they forget....

Remember what Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski had to say about the neocons' takeover of the Pentagon's intelligence units.

Here is a memory jogger...
_______________________________

Kwiatkowski, 43, a now-retired Air Force officer who served in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia (NESA) unit in the year before the invasion of Iraq, observed how the Pentagon's Iraq war-planning unit manufactured scare stories about Iraq's weapons and ties to terrorists. "It wasn't intelligence‚ -- it was propaganda," she says. "They'd take a little bit of intelligence, cherry-pick it, make it sound much more exciting, usually by taking it out of context, often by juxtaposition of two pieces of information that don't belong together."

More:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_405.html
______________________________

And whatever happened to the CIA Inspector General's report that was ready somewhere around July 2004 but was so damning of the Bushites' role in the WMD intelligence fiasco that it was withheld "so as to not influence the outcome of the upcoming election." Was that ever released, or did it just die a quite death having never seen the light of day?

This shit pisses me off.......

[cyclezealot]

99. And Chuck Robb is a part of this fraudulant report.

Someone needs be pressured for either being in collusion or naive as hell....We outa be screaming to what ever authorities are listening-that some Americans are not so gullible or uninformed.
Anyone else here screaming,mad as hell and not gonna take it any more...?!