Was there really an "intelligence failure"?

[kentuck]

I know that has been pounded into our heads and is now on CNN but, is it true? Was there really an intelligence failure or was there a failure to accept the intelligence seriously? Were there people that took the threat too lightly and ignore the warnings? Were there people that were busy with another agenda? Which is really the truth?

[MrSlayer]

1. No, everything went according to plan.

It wasn't faulty intelligence, it was fabricated intelligence.

[shraby]

2. You know what the OSP was, they wrapped the

intelligence around what * wanted to do and rejected what didn't fit. Probably same with 9/11. Important things were ignored, stuff didn't get translated, what was and didn't match their agenda was stuffed into a corner.

[Al-CIAda]

3. Hell no, the shit was made up and stove piped up to the directors

who authorized its desired contents.

[Waya]

8. No....

Intelligence Failure at all. Everything went off without a hitch. Glorious George needed 9/11 like Hitler needed the 'Reichstag Fire'..... Hitler got the Enabling Act - Dubya got the Patriot Act. And everything was built up so the 'facts' fit the agenda.
Everything was going smoothly - the only problem for Dubya was (and is) that at least half the population didn't (and doesn't) have 'Intelligence Failure'.

[Postman]

4. No. It was a deliberate LIE.

Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Karen Kwiatkowski were blowing the whistle before the invasion.

Office of Special Plans was set up to stovepipe cherry picked intel that painted a picture of Iraq that was not the truth.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Dick Cheney visited low-level CIA employees to say he

wanted evidence Iraq had WMD.

That kind of interference produces a "failure" - for the public, not from Cheney's point-of-view.

[stillcool]

6. more bullshit....from the manufacturers

of propaganda. CNN will NEVER tell the truth.

[elizm]

9. Yep...

The CNN spin is it was an intelligence failure. I can see where the program is going and I'm turning it off!

[OneTwentyoNine]

17. Hey...a HELL of alot of people can see through the" blame the CIA" BS

I'm not a real fan of CNN but I'll give them kudo's for this,its a hell of alot better than another hour of Aruba coverage...

[ET Awful]

7. Only if you're referring to Bush's capacity for rational thought.

Then yeah, there's a regular intelligence failure in that department :).

[jenmito]

10. No way.

If it was an honest "intelligence failure," why would Bush give Tenet the Medal of Freedom? This CNN special will just try to make us believe it was a "mistake." BS! We got our "intel" from a drunken thief named "Curveball" because he told Cheney (the CIA) what he wanted to hear. It was an administration LIE.

[Al-CIAda]

11. Yes, that was just the 'cherry' on top, wasn't it?! nt

[jenmito]

13. Yup.

I don't know why nobody has questioned Bush on this topic.

[RDANGELO]

12. In my opinion ,no intelligence failure.

One big point here that everybody seems to have forgotten is that the Senate Intelligence committee was supposed to have an investigation of the misuse of intelligence after the election. After the election, Senator Pat Roberts,the committee chairman called it off.Its obvious whats going on here;they know what the results would be.

[karynnj]

16. Only 9 Senators signed Kerry's letter calling for them to

do this part II as promised and to look at the DSM. Why?

[Al-CIAda]

20. Because they are chicken shit careerists who do not care about treason. nt

[stillcool]

14. Why is it.....

that there is enough information to fill book after book after book, about the prowess of our global intelligence capabilities and yet the same old questions and answers are regurgitated and repackaged as something new.

[punpirate]

15. Quite simply...

... there was a concerted attempt on the part of the administration (and the press, in the case of dear Ms. Miller) to present false, unverified, uncorroborated, manufactured and misleading information as true. The opinions of people in the intelligence community which disagreed were suppressed by a politicized intelligence leadership.

Did CNN say that? If not, then they weren't after the truth.

[johnaries]

18. Yes, we failed to get any Intelligence out of the WH. n/t

[OneTwentyoNine]

19. Hell....Colin Powell knew it was most likely all BS...

But he worked for "To Stupid to be President" and didn't have the guts to stop this before it started.

[wli]

21. no, there was fraud n/t

[electron_blue]

22. No way

It was deliberate deception. For whatever reason (I'm not always this clear-headed), I never fell for any of it and the b.s. was incredibly thick every step of the way. Bush/Cheney engineered what little 'intel' was out there, outright lied about some of it, and scared the heck out of Congress and most Americans til they cowered and went along.

I kept waiting for the discussion about WMD's to make sense, to have that ring of truth about it. I'm a physicist and none of what they said about WMD's made any sense. Which is what the IAEA report said mere weeks before Bush invaded Iraq. Maybe I saw through it because they lied about the physics-end of things, I dunno. Of course, I haven't taken a poll of all other physicists.... but nobody in my dept supported the Iraq War at any stage, fwiw.

[orleans]

23. the intelligence failure was that tenent was stupid enough to hide

his head up his ass and let this administration get away with fu*king murder!

[magellan]

24. Someone needs to explain this

Why did six different intelligence agencies all choose to screen out dissenting opinion in favor of flawed evidence supporting Bush** and bLiar's contention that Saddam had WMD?

There's only one logical answer: because that's what they were told to do.

One agency on its own might fail to correctly interpret the intelligence, but not six. The only thing they have in common is the motivation of those asking for and compiling the information.

If there's an alternative explanation that holds water, I've yet to hear it.

[agincourt]

25. There was an intelligence failure,

We the American people didn't throw out this nest of rodents and vipers by any means necessary. That was the intelligence failure. We allowed the bush administration to remain in power.