White House missrepresented CIA intelligence on Iraq: Senator

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040708/pl_afp/us_iraq_intelligence&cid=1521&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top US lawmaker on defense and intelligence matters accused the White House of continuing to try to create the impression of a link between Iraq (news - web sites) and al-Qaeda, even in the face of intelligence assessments to the contrary.


Democratic Senator Carl Levin made his comments one day before the release of a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report which blames the CIA (news - web sites) for much of the faulty intelligence Washington used to justify last year's invasion of Iraq.


But Levin charged at a press conference that the White House also bears a great deal of responsibility, for deliberately creating the false impression of a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq.


He pointed to an unclassified statement sent to him from the CIA on Wednesday, in his capacity as the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites).

more

[joanski01]

1. And Senator Dick Durbin

said on CNN that this report was only HALF of the story. He said that Pat Roberts won't release how the White House used the information until after the elections! How do they get away with this stuff? The Dems just have to learn how to make more noise -- although their noise rarely gets reported.

[girl gone mad]

2. I read..

they made a deal with the Dems. Maybe they wouldn't have even gotten an investigation otherwise.

[BattyDem]

3. I was just going to post this - you beat me to it! :-)

I'll post what I've got anyway. :-)

I took some notes while watching Carl Levin's press conference on C-SPAN:
Carl Levin said the CIA told the WH they had no evidence of the Mohammed Atta/Iraqi intelligence meeting in Prague, but the WH "exaggerated" the connection anyway. He then quoted Cheney telling Russett on December 9, 2001, "It's been pretty well confirmed that Atta did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi Intelligence Agency" - but then quoted another Cheney interview with CNBC on June 17 in which he stated, "We have never been able to prove that there is a connection there on 9/11 ...".

The video is on the CSPAN web site.

Carl Levin Press Conference Video


I found a link to the story at MSNBC. It doesn't have a full transcript of Levin's comments, but here are a few quotes:

... Levin cited a CIA statement he received this week saying that there is no credible information that Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech Republic city of Prague in April 2001. In fact, the report concludes, CIA analysts “are increasingly skeptical that such a meeting occurred.”

"(The finding) demonstrates that it was the administration, not the CIA, that exaggerated the relations between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida," Levin said at a news conference.

MSNBC Article



Sounds like the CIA isn't going to quietly take the fall. :evilgrin:



edited for clarity

[Rebellious Republican]

4. This is good! Folks need to rate it, its very low right now......

Avg Rating: 2.57, 227 votes - Your Rating: 5

[BattyDem]

5. Done!

Average Rating is 2.59 with 229 votes

[frylock]

6. why is there never any mention of rumsfeld's osp?

[struggle4progress]

7. kick for lying Repubs

:kick: