Nat'l Intel Director: Bush Admin Manipulated Intel-'Because They Didn't Like Answers'

[kpete]

National Intel Director: Bush Admin. Manipulated Iraq Intel ‘Because They Didn’t Like The Answers’

In Stephen Hayes’s upcoming biography on Dick Cheney, he writes that the current Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell appears to side with “those who believe that the administration manipulated intelligence on Iraq for political purposes before the 2003 invasion.”

McConnell reportedly said he had “serious reservations” when asked by President Bush to become the DNI because of the Pentagon’s manipulation of intelligence in the lead up to the Iraq war. Today, Meet the Press host Tim Russert previewed the relevant portion of the book:

McConnell was honored to be asked (to be DNI), but he had serious reservations. He had been unimpressed with many aspects of the Bush administration and its conduct of the war on terror, particularly what he felt was a politicized use of intelligence in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

“My sense of it is their political faith and convictions influenced how they took information and interpreted (it), how they picked up and interpreted outside events. … I’ve read much more about the current set of players and they did set up a whole new interpretation because they didn’t like the answers. They’ve gotten results that in my view now have been disastrous,” (McConnell said).

Video and more at:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/07/22/mcconnell-pentagon/

[defendandprotect]

1. Downing Street confirmed again --

This manipulation of intelligence -- I guess in many ways goes back to Nixon one of the sickest Republicans .... sending himself tens of thousands of telegrams congratulating himself on VN!!!

Reagan . . . October Surprise deal -- and his attempts to manipulate CIA intelligence re Russia!!!

Bush I and the need for a strike on Panama !!!
Gulf War I which never ended -- we were bombing them for 12 years -- !!!