One by one, the exotic intelligence factoids Bush's
researchers culled from raw intelligence data files
to publicly bolster their claim of imminent threat
- the yellowcake uranium from Niger, the aluminum
tubes for processing uranium, the Prague meeting with
Mohamed Atta, the discredited Iraqi informants
"Curveball" and Ahmad Chalabi - have been exposed
as PREVIOUSLY KNOWN FRAUDS.
When it came to selling an invasion of Iraq it had
wanted to launch before 9/11, the Bush White House
systematically ignored the best available intelligence
from US agencies or any other reliable source.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-scheer8nov08,1,412915
0.column?ctrack=1&cset=true
8 November 2005 By Robert Scheer - Los Angeles Times
Lying with intelligence
WHO in the White House knew about DITSUM No. 044-02
and when did they know it ?
That's the newly declassified smoking-gun document, originally prepared by
the Defense Intelligence Agency in February 2002 but ignored by President
Bush.
Its declassification this weekend blows another huge hole in Bush's claim
that he was acting on the best intelligence available when he pitched the
invasion of Iraq as a way to prevent an Al Qaeda terror attack using
weapons
of mass destruction.
The report demolished the credibility of the key Al Qaeda informant the
administration relied on to make its claim that a working alliance existed
between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It was circulated widely
within
the US government a full eight months before Bush used the prisoner's lies
to argue for an invasion of Iraq because "we've learned that Iraq has
trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and deadly gases."
Al Qaeda senior military trainer Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi - a Libyan captured
in Pakistan in 2001 - was probably "intentionally misleading the
debriefers," the DIA report concluded in one of two paragraphs finally
declassified at the request of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and released by
his
office over the weekend.
The report also said : "Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for
several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he
knows will retain their interest."
SEE : http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_cr/levin041505.html
and http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=236440
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_cr/levin041505.html
He got that right. Folks in the highest places were very interested in
claims along the lines Libi was peddling, even though they went against
both
logic and the preponderance of intelligence gathered to that point about
possible collaboration between two enemies of the US that were
fundamentally
at odds with each other.
Al Qaeda was able to create a base in Iraq only after the US overthrow of
Hussein, not before. "Saddam's regime is intensely secular and is wary of
Islamic revolutionary movements," accurately noted the DIA.
Yet Bush used the informant's already discredited tall tale in his key
Oct.
7, 2002, speech just before the Senate voted on whether to authorize the
use
of force in Iraq and again in two speeches in February, just ahead of the
invasion.
Leading up to the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to sell it to
the United Nations, while Vice President Dick Cheney, national security
advisor Condoleezza Rice, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and
Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith repeated it breathlessly for
homeland audiences.
The con worked, and Americans came to believe the lie that Hussein was
associated with the Sept. 11 hijackers.
See :
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/default_02112005.asp
Even CIA Director George Tenet publicly fell into line, ignoring his own
agency's dissent that Libi would not have been in a position to know what
he
said he knew. In fact, Libi, according to the DIA, could not name any
Iraqis
involved, any chemical or biological material used or where the training
allegedly occurred. In January 2004, the prisoner recanted his story, and
the next month the CIA withdrew all intelligence reports based on his
false
information.
One by one, the exotic intelligence factoids Bush's researchers culled
from
raw intelligence data files to publicly bolster their claim of imminent
threat - the yellowcake uranium from Niger, the aluminum tubes for
processing uranium, the Prague meeting with Mohamed Atta, the discredited
Iraqi informants "Curveball" and Ahmad Chalabi - have been exposed as
previously known frauds.
When it came to selling an invasion of Iraq it had wanted to launch before
9/11, the Bush White House systematically ignored the best available
intelligence from US agencies or any other reliable source.
It should be remembered that while Bush and his gang were successfully
scaring the wits out of us about the alleged Iraq-Al Qaeda alliance, UN
weapons inspectors were on the ground in Iraq.
Weapons inspectors Hans Blix and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed
ElBaradei promised they could finish scouring the country if given a few
more months. But instead, they were abruptly chased out by an invasion
necessitated by what the president told us was a "unique and urgent
threat."
Bush exploited the worldwide horror felt over the 9/11 attacks to justify
the Iraq invasion ......................................
Read the rest :
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-scheer8nov08,1,412915
0.column?ctrack=1&cset=true
Cheney Lies Caught On Tape
**************************
From Hardball 11/08/05
Remember when Dick Cheney said it was pretty well
confirmed before he didn't ?
In '01, Cheney said this on MTP :
CHENEY : It's been pretty well confirmed that
he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior
official of the Iraqi intelligence service
in Czechoslovakia last April.
on 6/19/04 CNBC, he said :
GLORIA BORGER, TV SHOW HOST :
You have said in the past that it was, quote,
"pretty well confirmed."
CHENEY : No, I never said that.
BORGER : OK.
CHENEY : I never said that.
BORGER : I think that is...
CHENEY : Absolutely not.
This clip shows the real Dr. Evil.
He knows exactly what he said in 01',
and as Mikey says :
Although I have to say I just was struck watching
that Gloria Borger interview juxtaposed with the
"Meet the Press" comment. -- I mean, it just -- it
does raise questions about the tether to reality here,
which I think is at the heart of much of the controversy
about his prewar statements and the role he played
in the run-up to war.
WATCH THE FOOTAGE :
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/10.html#a5796
Fight ignorance, read www.buzzflash.com
http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/default_02112005.asp
|
