U.S. questions pre-war intelligence

[Newsjock]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-wmd28aug28,1,2697529.story?coll=la-home-headlines

By Bob Drogin, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Frustrated at the failure to find Saddam Hussein's suspected stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have launched a major effort to determine if they were victims of bogus Iraqi defectors who planted disinformation to mislead the West before the war.

... Saddam's motives for such a scheme may have been to bluff his enemies abroad, from Washington to Teheran, by sending false signals of his military might. Experts also say the dictator's defiance of the West, and its fear of his weapons of mass destruction, boosted his prestige at home and was a critical part of his power base in the Arab world.

... The current focus on Iraqi defectors reflects a new skepticism among members of the Iraq Survey Group, the 1,400-member team responsible for finding any illicit arms. In interviews, several current and former survey team members expressed growing disappointment over the inconclusive results of the search so far.

"We were prisoners of our own beliefs," said a senior U.S. weapons expert who recently returned from a stint with the survey group. "We said Saddam Hussein was a master of denial and deception. Then when we couldn't find anything, we said that proved it, instead of questioning our own assumptions."

The survey group is jointly led by David Kay, a former U.N. nuclear inspector who was named a CIA special advisor in June, and Army Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, who headed the "human intelligence" service at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Kay has said he will issue a preliminary report next month.

more

[maggrwaggr]

1. the blame du jour

pathetic

[LeftCoast]

2. This is so patently stupid I'm really shocked the LA Times published it.

So the Bush team cherry picks the info they want to prove their case and now they're trying to claim that ALL the info they had was bogus? This is a total red herring.

[RamboLiberal]

3. Start by looking at Rummy, Wolfie and Perle's buddy

Chalabi - there's a lot of stinking cow patties there.

[priller]

4. They weren't victims

The willing searched out and cherry-picked info that supported their predetermined agenda. More blame game.

[Oilwellian]

5. They must think we're "morans"

The bottom line is, the intelligence that came out of Rummy's Office of Special Plans (ie Chalabi) took a precedent over our traditional intelligence sources. The question is, why????

[cliss]

6. US questions pre-war intelligence

I find this alibi hard to believe. The "cabal" in Washington had lots of time to weigh the evidence. The entire world stood up in an effort to stop them. Now, when things are spinning out of control and funding is becoming critical, maybe they are looking for someone else to blame, besides George Tenet & Hadley.

It's also becoming obvious that funding will become a major issue over the next few weeks. It seems that the war in Iraq is about to become a financial "black hole" which will suck far, far more money than anyone even imagined 4 months ago. Bushco has so far held off on giving any solid figures, even though they have probably had pretty good estimates of how much this was going to cost the US taxpayers but didn't divulge (for obvious reasons).

They have now painted themselves into a corner: public pressure is increasing for them to clean up the mess. Soldiers are dying daily. Iraq needs to be fixed, and fast. They have no alternative but to go to congress for A LOT more money. Chances are good congress won't be able to do it. This can lead to two scenarios.

To be continued (this ended up being too long)

[peterh]

7. Uhhh…does this mean that the following statements….

Might have been just slightly exaggerated….



"We are making solid progress. And as is with most progress it is preliminary. We are not at the final stage of understanding fully Iraq's WMD program or having found WMD weapons," said David Kay, who recently returned from Iraq where he was sent as a CIA special adviser to develop a strategy for finding weapons of mass destruction.
Kay said Iraqi scientists who were "collaborating and cooperating" and freshly unearthed documents have led the WMD hunting team to new, previously unknown sites in Iraq. Physical evidence has been collected, but he declined to describe it.


"I am more confident with every week that goes by that success is coming soon," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, who heads the Iraq Survey Group of about 1,500 coalition experts that took over the search for banned weapons in June.

Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, "I never did expect we would find a smoking missile or the smoking gun, I think it would be an incredible piece of luck."
"I am confident that a clear case will be made about the Iraqi WMD," he said.

Both Kay and Roberts said there could be "surprises" uncovered, but declined to describe what those might be.
"I think in view of a lot of criticism, I would not be surprised if there is a surprise that would end up changing a lot of people's minds," Roberts said.

<http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3200130>


Here’s Pat Roberts now making excuses yesterday….Pathetic and typical.

<http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/082703/loc_0827030003.shtml>

[FloridaPat]

8. Again nameless experts. And David Kay is not to be trusted.

So the excuse is we ignored the FBI, CIA, NSA, UN inspectprs, Scott Ritter, most of the world and believe a couple of people that defected. Bogus defectors even.

Sure

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Meanwhile Halliburton cashes in and America eats a shit sandwich

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=86651

How STUPID does the American electorate need to be to believe this horseshit?

[The Magistrate]

10. Certainly The Tales From Defectors Were False

And tailored to what their hosts wanted to hear. What is questionable about this story is only whether this was the result of some wiley ruse by Hussein.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. Interesting

When I first heard this team was going in to replace the military team that struck out, I was relatively certain that they would find a smoking gun or create one out of whole cloth.

Now, 1400 people with intelligence and maps later ...nothing.

On the one hand there is no doubt in my mind Hussein may have led them to believe he had something to simply stall the intent to wage war, which obvioulsly backfired ..but regardless, he was contained and we are now billions in debt and Iraq is MORE of a mess than it was.

Even if he did play bad poker, we were miserably duped.

[truthisfreedom]

12. ok, so this is the "dog did my homework" excuse?

intelligence. think about it.

in·tel·li·gence    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (n-tl-jns)
n.
The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
The faculty of thought and reason.
Superior powers of mind. See Synonyms at mind.
An intelligent, incorporeal being, especially an angel.
Information; news. See Synonyms at news.
Secret information, especially about an actual or potential enemy.
An agency, staff, or office employed in gathering such information.


Espionage agents, organizations, and activities considered as a group: “Intelligence is nothing if not an institutionalized black market in perishable commodities” (John le Carré).