CIA IRAQ REPORTS WERE MINIMAL UNTIL BUSH TOOK OFFICE... POLITICS

[truthisfreedom]

from:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia0718,0,2936686.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
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During the Clinton administration, the CIA's annual reports to Congress on the global proliferation of weapons of mass destruction routinely cast Iraq as a problematic footnote -- a country worth keeping an eye on but not an alarming threat.

But the tone of the reports changed dramatically after George W. Bush became president, with increasingly longer narratives suggesting that Iraq was hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.

In 1997, the first year of the congressionally mandated reports, the CIA devoted only three paragraphs to Iraq, noting that Baghdad possessed dual-use equipment that could be used for biological or chemical programs. There was no mention of a nuclear weapons program.

By last year, the latest reporting period, the section on Iraq ran seven times longer, warning that "all intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons" and that the country could produce a bomb "within a year" if it got its hands on weapons-grade material.

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[truthisfreedom]

1. hell-bent is the ticket, yeah...

we all need a little hell, don't we, mr. bush?

[sandnsea]

2. That quote

"Iraq's efforts to procure tens of thousands of proscribed high-strength aluminum tubes are of significant concern. All intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons and that these tubes could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program. Most intelligence specialists assess this to be the intended use, but some believe that these tubes are probably intended for conventional weapons programs."

So even as they got stronger, which they did, there were still alot of qualifiers.

http://www.odci.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd/Iraq_Oct_2002.htm