WP: Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded (Accountability? Nooo)

[Pirate Smile]

Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 28, 2005; Page A01

Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were probably meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.

The civilian analysts, former military men considered experts on foreign and U.S. weaponry, work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), one of three U.S. agencies singled out for particular criticism by President Bush's commission that investigated U.S. intelligence.

-snip-
The problem, according to the commission, which cited the two analysts' work, is that they did not seek or obtain information available from the Energy Department and elsewhere showing that the tubes were indeed the type used for years as rocket-motor cases by Iraq's military. The panel said the finding represented a "a serious lapse in analytic tradecraft" because the center's personnel "could and should have conducted a more exhaustive examination of the question."

Pentagon spokesmen said the awards for the analysts were to recognize their overall contributions on the job over the course of each year. But some current and former officials, including those who called attention to the awards, said the episode shows how the administration has failed to hold people accountable for mistakes on prewar intelligence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701618.html

I wonder who are the "current and former officials, including those who called attention to the awards"?

[IChing]

1. Rice says: Independent investigation of anything is unnecessary

"The United States is as open a society as you will find," she said and the administration is being held accountable....... "by a free press,...... by a Congress that is a separate and co-equal branch of government,...... and by its own expectations of what is right."(i added the dots)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1506563

[jimshoes]

12. Wow, that's got to be the biggest

fib ever told.

edit:sp

[Straight Shooter]

2. "The administration has failed to hold people accountable for mistakes"

This administration thrives on "mistakes." Anyway, what was that lame-butt statement bush made that the election basically wiped the slate clean as far as accountability? "The people decided" or some such nonsense.

This is how communism eventually devolved, where those in power were rewarded whether they display merit or not, and the peons continued in their drudgery of employment and economic deprivation, no matter how they excelled at their tasks.

[Pirate Smile]

4. It is the same thing over and over again - every friggin time.

It is mind boggling.

[Frances]

3. Thanks for posting this.

I emailed it to a friend of mine.

It's clear to me that Bush is rewarding these men for lying for him.

That's why he wants Bolton at the U.N. Bolton will lie and lie and lie!

[leveymg]

5. And we all know what happened to those who tried to told the truth

"Karen is are no longer with this office. No, I can't give you a forwarding number, but I believe she's in Cuba. Some Marine Corps posting - a long one":bounce: B-) :eyes: :bounce:

[UpInArms]

6. let's see if there's a pattern here

President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tommy Franks, the now-retired Army general who led the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; former CIA director George Tenet, who told Bush it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction; and L. Paul Bremer, who presided over the first 14 months of Iraq reconstruction.

from:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63623-2004Dec14.html

[Supersedeas]

7. in light of the Bolton attempt to FIRE analysts who wouldn't manipulate

intelligence AND the Downing Street Memo....when will the Corporate Media begin to put 1 + 1 together.

[daleo]

8. Crooks pinning medals on the chests of other crooks.

Just like the old Soviet Union again.

[wellst0nev0ter]

9. Boy, Is This The Closest Thing The President's Commission Has Come

To saying the Bushies manipulated the intelligence to fit their wargasm?

[rodeodance]

10. why would the bush adm. punish those who fed them?

...........The president's commission urged the Bush administration to consider taking action against the agencies, and perhaps the individuals, responsible for the most serious errors in assessing Iraq's weapons program.

Washington lawyer Richard Ben-Veniste, who was a member of the Sept. 11 commission and whose government experience goes back to service as a Watergate prosecutor, said it is important for the administration to hold the intelligence community accountable for mistakes.

"It matters whether it was carelessness or tailoring , whether it was based on perceived wants of an administration or overt requests . . . It is time now to demonstrate the need for the integrity of the process," Ben-Veniste said.

In its report, the commission, chaired by former appellate judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), said "reform requires more than changing the community's systems: it also requires accountability."

[priller]

17. Exactly! The analysts were rewarded for doing what Bush wanted!

That's a far different thing from fair, competent, thorough intelligence, of course, but they gave the Bushies what they wanted -- distorted intel to fit a pre-determined outcome. Just like the British memo said.

Of course they were rewarded.

[snot]

11. B.t.w., can medals of honor be revoked?

Been wanting to ask.

[Rose Siding]

13. Go Pincus

THIS is why we depend on journalists. Any mention of this on "news" shows yet?

[TexasLawyer]

14. Downing Street Memo

Does it even matter what these guys said or did? As shown in the Downing Street Memo, and as corroborated by Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, et al., war with Iraq has ALWAYS been INEVITABLE.

The facts were being "fixed" to fit the plans for war. If these guys didn't say the tubes were for nuclear weapons, the BFEE would have found some other "expert" to affirm that that was the ONLY POSSIBLE use for these tubes.

[agincourt]

15. By far the worst part of this

Is the shameful quanity of americans who believe bush was "mislead" on iraq by "faulty intelligence" caused by "Clinton budget cuts". It's bad enough watching a degenerate political operative lie. It's even more painful watching the pod people put on a happy face and swoon over their "moral and upright leader".

[NNN0LHI]

16. Analysts Linked to Intelligence Failures on Iraq Rewarded

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBVBQU8A9E.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Army analysts whose work has been connected to a major intelligence shortcoming on Iraq have received awards for job performance over the last few years, according to officials.

The two civilian analysts work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center - one of three U.S. agencies criticized by the presidential commission that probed U.S. intelligence on Iraq.

The Pentagon, in a written statement, told The Washington Post the awards for the analysts were to recognize their overall contributions on the job over the course of each of the past three years, and that "supervisors were encouraged to reward individuals on the basis of their annual contributions."

The analysts are former military men who are experts on foreign and U.S. weaponry.

[philly_bob]

18. More prizes for Iraq policy geniuses

Sounds like the quasi-governmental Commodities Futures Trading Commission named an Iraqi Defense Dept. planner as Chairman. May 17:

"WASHINGTON (AFX) -- President Bush nominated Reuben Jeffrey on Tuesday to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Jeffrey is currently a special assistant to the president and a senior director for international economic affairs at the White House's National Security Council. He also worked on Iraq policy at the Defense Department and for Goldman Sachs in various locations around the world. "

http://futures.fxstreet.com/Futures/news/afx/singleNew.asp?menu=latestnews&pv_noticia=1116365848-c84d0f08-46317

[evermind]

19. Same thing in UK

John Scarlett, then head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, who oversaw the production of the UK's Iraq dossier (WMD, 45 minutes..) was made head of MI6 around the time the Hutton Inquiry concluded.

At least one outraged crusty alumnus of the service did the media rounds at the time, huffing about it, but nothing more than a few raised eyebrows and dropped jaws came of it.

This all adds up, really: the pattern of intelligence "failure" can easily be read as a pattern of deliberate intelligence failure, with a few words in the right ears, and rewards to the failing.

For more info on UK (and some US) intel "fixing":

http://www.sundayherald.com/34491 ("Revealed, the secret cabal which spun for Blair", Sunday Herald. - This (largely ignored) story was the first mention of Operation Rockingham from Scott Ritter. See also the wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rockingham )

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/pilger.php?articleid=1845 ("Blair's Mass Deception" - John Pilger, more on Operation Rockingham)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5433.htm ("Revealed: How MI6 Sold The Iraq War", London Times.)

[catzies]

20. Loyalty is the only thing they require in their lackeys. Not ethics and

certainly not honesty.

Lie for them and you're rewarded. Every time.

[struggle4progress]

21. Shocking photo! Syrians tying Christian girls to railroad tracks:

This is your golden opportunity! The White House is now soliciting horror tales and frightening photos, like the one above, to stoke war fever. Journalists like you can make big bucks contributing to this important public education effort. But time is running out! Find old notes and photos, add neoconservative spin, and win fame and medals. Limited time offer.

[greenman3610]

22. let's watch the page number

last week, Pincus' story on the Downing memo started out
on A01, like this one, and then was
suddenly moved by Sunday morning to A26.

Washington Post Buries Page 1 Sunday Story on Iraq Intel Doubts to Page 26

Original Headline Softened as Story Quietly Moved Overnight
Incident Adds Yet More Questions About WaPo's Timid Coverage of News Critical to Bush Administration.


A Washington Post article exposing the specific details of several pre-war doubts by Bush Administration aides and anlaysts in the lead-up to war ran on page A1 in the early Saturday editions of WaPo's Sunday paper. By Sunday morning, however, the story had its headlined softened and was subsequently buried on page A26.

The story, by WaPo staff writer Walter Pincus, details the doubts of the administration's own intelligence analysts concerning WMD, Munitions Plants and Saddam Hussein's Unmanned Aerial Vehicles program, all of which were widely trumpeted as justifications for going to war by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and others within the administration during the build-up to the War on Iraq.

Pincus' Page 1 item, which originally ran in Saturday afternoon editions of the Sunday paper and on the front page of the WaPo website was headlined "More Evidence of Bush Aide's Doubts on Iraq -- Analysts Questioned Most Intelligence".

By Sunday, however, the article had been pushed back to page 26 with the softer headline, "Prewar Findings Worried Analysts".


more at
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001411.htm

[jbnow]

23. bush's own failures

have always been rewarded. Poor grades didn't make grad school hard to get into. Poor attendance as a guard didn't get him sent to Nam. Failed business after another brought him money. Insider trading brought him profit. Being a bad governor brought him the presidency and being a horrible president brought him a second term. Cruel, selfish policies that hurt the needy and killed so many brought him a "good Christian" reputation.

Frankly I await my awards. I can think of many failures on my part. But I think I will be made head of the Interior Dept. I started interior decorating and repairs as a naive home owner almost 2 years ago. I am not done. I have made many mistakes, broken things, hurt myself, lived in chaos. I can do in a week what most people could do in an afternoon, only worse. I have really, really earned awards and promotions from this administration.

Of course it is just my home and budget I am screwing up, not the country or world, and no one has been killed. I might not qualify.

I am nearly numb that those we should be most ashamed of in this country are given honors.