Official's Key Report On Iraq Is Faulted
'Dubious' Intelligence Fueled Push for War
Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general.
Feith's office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," according to portions of the report, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). The inspector general described Feith's activities as "an alternative intelligence assessment process."
..."The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration's decision to invade Iraq," Levin said yesterday. "The inspector general's report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war."
The summary document confirmed a range of accusations that Levin had leveled against Feith's office, alleging inaccurate work.
...It stated that the office produced intelligence assessments "inconsistent" with the U.S. intelligence community consensus, calling those actions "inappropriate" because the assessments purported to be "intelligence products" but were far more conclusive than the consensus view.
In particular, the summary cited the defense policy office's preparation of slides describing as a "known contact" an alleged 2001 meeting in Prague between Mohamed Atta, the leader of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, and an Iraqi intelligence officer.
That claim figured heavily in statements by Cheney and other senior administration officials alleging a link between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi regime, but it has since been discredited.
...The summary recommended no action within the Defense Department because, it said, the current collaboration under new leadership at the Pentagon and the intelligence community "will significantly reduce the opportunity for the inappropriate conduct of intelligence activities outside intelligence channels."
Read the rest here.
Pentagon Manipulated Pre-War Intelligence
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Doug
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Pentagon Manipulated Pre-War Intelligence
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Doug
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CIA doubts didn't deter Feith's team
Intelligence agencies disagreed with many of its prewar findings.
By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writers
February 10, 2007
WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration began assembling its case for war, analysts across the U.S. intelligence community were disturbed by the report of a secretive Pentagon team that concluded Iraq had significant ties to Al Qaeda.
Analysts from the CIA and other agencies "disagreed with more than 50%" of 26 findings the Pentagon team laid out in a controversial paper, according to testimony Friday from Thomas F. Gimble, acting inspector general of the Pentagon.
The dueling groups sat down at CIA headquarters in late August 2002 to try to work out their differences. But while the CIA agreed to minor modifications in some of its own reports, Gimble said, the Pentagon unit was utterly unbowed.
"They didn't make the changes that were talked about in that August 20th meeting," Gimble said, and instead went on to present their deeply flawed findings to senior officials at the White House.
See more here.
Intelligence agencies disagreed with many of its prewar findings.
By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes, Times Staff Writers
February 10, 2007
WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration began assembling its case for war, analysts across the U.S. intelligence community were disturbed by the report of a secretive Pentagon team that concluded Iraq had significant ties to Al Qaeda.
Analysts from the CIA and other agencies "disagreed with more than 50%" of 26 findings the Pentagon team laid out in a controversial paper, according to testimony Friday from Thomas F. Gimble, acting inspector general of the Pentagon.
The dueling groups sat down at CIA headquarters in late August 2002 to try to work out their differences. But while the CIA agreed to minor modifications in some of its own reports, Gimble said, the Pentagon unit was utterly unbowed.
"They didn't make the changes that were talked about in that August 20th meeting," Gimble said, and instead went on to present their deeply flawed findings to senior officials at the White House.
See more here.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
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We - anybody who knew anything about the Middle East, who even looked up anything about the Middle East - knew this at the time. Now they are getting around to admitting it. Maybe my one forlorn hope for this country's future coming true - that the corporations have decided W&Co are too dangerous and are finally "permitting" evidence to get to the public to shut down the "unitary executive" before he turns on them. America may survive this yet.
Barbara Fitzpatrick
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Hogeye
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Since the (small number of) crony corporations' concern is with political power, they don't really care which faction of the Welfare-Warfare Party is in power. So long as Boobus Americanus falls for the Tweedledee-Tweedledum trick and believe they really have a choice of masters, the plunder will continue. It's the institution, stupid! The thing is the abuse! The State.
Pet peeve: Some people seem to think that corporations in general, or a large portion of corporations, are in collusion with the State. In fact, only a small minority get to buy State power. Most corporations, and firms in general, are screwed by the State. Remember, the buying and selling of political power is a zero (actually negative) sum game. Only a minority of people/firms can be net-tax-consumers.
Pet peeve: Some people seem to think that corporations in general, or a large portion of corporations, are in collusion with the State. In fact, only a small minority get to buy State power. Most corporations, and firms in general, are screwed by the State. Remember, the buying and selling of political power is a zero (actually negative) sum game. Only a minority of people/firms can be net-tax-consumers.
"May the the last king be strangled in the guts of the last priest." - Diderot
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. - Ingersoll
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. - Ingersoll
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
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It's not the corporations in general (although I wish the original rules restraining them were still in effect), but the mega-corporations - the ones that are basically monopolies in fact, if not in law (interlocking directorates - which used to be illegal - mean that there are "separate" corporations run by the same CEOs). These are the ones that control the market, instead of the market controlling them. As long as they have that power, there's no such thing as a "free" market (or a "free" government, for that matter).
Barbara Fitzpatrick