Tenet says Cheney had eye on Iraq long before 9/11

[cal04]

In his book, former CIA director says aides to Cheney and Rumsfeld inserted 'crap' into public justifications for war
White House and Pentagon officials, and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, were determined to attack Iraq from the first days of the Bush administration, long before the Sept. 11 attacks, and repeatedly stretched available intelligence to build support for the war, according to a new book by former CIA director George Tenet.

Although Tenet does not question the threat Saddam Hussein posed or the sincerity of administration beliefs, he recounts numerous efforts by aides to Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to insert "crap" into public justifications for the war. Tenet also describes an ongoing fear within the intelligence community of the administration's willingness to "mischaracterize complex intelligence information."

(snip)
In their threat briefings for the incoming Bush administration in late 2000, Tenet writes, CIA officials did not even mention Iraq. But Cheney, he says, asked for an Iraq briefing and requested that the outgoing Clinton administration's defense secretary, William Cohen, provide information on Iraq for Bush.

(snip)
Tenet writes defensively about the controversial program to intercept domestic telephone calls involving terrorism suspects. The program was Cheney's idea, and the vice president briefed "the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees 12 times prior to its public disclosure" in late 2005.




http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4756983.html

[Forkboy]

1. I'd say the plans for Iraq started about the same time PNAC formed.

[WinkyDink]

2. No crap, Sherlock.

[pepperbear]

3. oh please....

:popcorn:

[originalpckelly]

4. OH HOLY CRAP! Does this make my theory about Cheney and the Iraq Niger forgery closer to reality?

If Cheney was interested in invading Iraq as early as late 2000, then it might be very possible he was interested in late 1999-early 2000. The Niger forgery break-ins took place over New Years 2000. Letterhead from the Nigerien embassy was "stolen" in something that was really an inside job staged to look like a break-in.

Is it possible that the people who did the Niger forgery were somehow being directly or indirectly controlled by Cheney?

Did Cheney have a hand in the Niger forgery?

Is this why he apparently tried to distract the public away from the root problems of the Niger claims on to the story of Joe and Valerie Wilson?

I have to say, the answer to all of these questions is by the day becoming more "yes" than "no". The fact that all of this is pre-9/11 wipes out all doubt that this is in no way a reaction to those attacks, and it even opens up more legitimate questions about those attacks.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Great NPR on Italy and the Niger forgeries

Fresh Air on April 26.

Road to War May Have Run Through Italy

Carlo Bonini, investigative reporter for the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, broke the story about an Italian intelligence agency's involvement in forging documents saying that Iraq secured uranium from Niger. Those documents helped the White House make the case for invading Iraq. Bonini's new book is Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9847141

[originalpckelly]

12. I've actually read English translations of the whole three stories...

I'm thankful for this link, however, because I am certain NPR's account will be more coherent than the English translations. :hi:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. It was quite riveting. You can always judge a good story when you

sit in your car and don't go into the house because you don't want to miss one explosive second. I'd like to read the transcript.

[originalpckelly]

14. I've always wondered two things:

Were those two SISMI related individuals, who forged the documents, in any way being directed by someone in higher places, other than SISMI?

If they were, were those individuals in any way tied to Bush/Cheney and associates?

[originalpckelly]

15. There's one very interesting detail at the end of the story from NPR...

Rocco Martino is doing well now. He's doing so well, he lives in a country estate in Northern Italy. This is a man who was so broke back in 2000 he conducted this operation.

Excuse me, but how does someone who appear to have no assets only seven years ago, get enough assets to retire to a nice Northern Italy country estate?

Someone paid him off big time.

[Robbien]

6. Why tell us this now? Why not tell us about this when it could have done some good?

Now it will be passed on as old news by corporate media.

Imagine if he talked about this in the run up for the Iraq invasion. Sure would have slowed things down.

[Bobbieo]

7. Just think We might have President Gore - riight now!!!

If this thing would have broken then. Wish we could turn back the clock!

[Skittles]

8. tell us something we don't know, f***tard

and as far as speaking out long after the damage was done, and accepting a MEDAL for his dismal performance, Mr. Tenet can fuck himself.

[BlueManDude]

9. Isn't it a little late for Tenet to try and set the record straight and save his reputation?

This is all well and good but by now we pretty much know all this shit already. If he had spoke up earlier it might have done some real good.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. To me, Tenet was a passenger on a runaway train with a mad engineer

careening through mountain passes with no safe place to jump off.

He did itinitally try to stifle some of the crap the administration was trying to sell. The CIA had previously pulled the Niger references from a speech in October before the SOTU when it magically re-appeared.

I think Tenet at that point just said to himself "Oh, f!@# it. They aren't interested in real intelligence." and gave up trying to have any real input. We were going to war as they(Neocon thugs) had wanted to since before their first day in the White House and nothing he could do was going to stop it.

I think Tenet should have jumped and taken his chances. But, I am still happy that he chose to do a safe tuck and roll as the train was pulling into the station. He still has much to tell us.

[global1]

11. Has William Cohen Ever Said That Cheney Requested An Iraq....

briefing to provide info on Iraq for * during the transition between administrations? It would be interesting to hear Cohen's take on this.

[cal04]

17. I don't know but here's an aricle from Woodward

Immediate Focus on Iraq

In early January 2001, before Bush was inaugurated, Cheney passed a message to the outgoing secretary of defense, William S. Cohen, a moderate Republican who served in the Democratic Clinton administration.

"We really need to get the president-elect briefed up on some things," Cheney said, adding that he wanted a serious "discussion about Iraq and different options." The president-elect should not be given the routine, canned, round-the-world tour normally given incoming presidents. Topic A should be Iraq.

Cheney had been secretary of defense during George H.W. Bush's presidency, which included the Gulf War, and he harbored a deep sense of unfinished business about Iraq. In addition, Iraq was the only country the United States regularly, if intermittently, bombed these days.

The U.S. military had been engaged in a frustrating low-grade, undeclared war with Iraq since the Gulf War when Bush's father and a United Nations-backed coalition had ousted Hussein and his army from Kuwait after they had invaded that country. The United States enforced two designated no-fly zones, which meant the Iraqis could fly neither planes nor helicopters in these areas, which made up about 60 percent of the country. Cheney wanted to make sure Bush understood the military and other issues in this potential tinderbox.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25550-2004Apr19_2.html

[earth mom]

16. Yeah Cheney had his eye on Iraq and...Bubblin Crude, Oil that is, Texas Tea.... nt