Reply #26: State Dept had its own intel unit that said most of that stuff was BS.

[Garbo 2004]

Niger, aluminum tubes, etc. Powell also was part of the NSC and briefed the Congress along with Tenet. Reportedly Powell included the Niger yellowcake claims in his Congressional briefings although his own State Dept intel unit (INR) as well as the US Ambassador to Niger, part of State's diplomatic service, had considered those claims debunked by early 2002.

Now Wilkerson's trying to run interference and portray Powell and Bush as out of the loop and uninformed. Baloney. If Bush was uninformed it was because he set the policy and didn't care about the details as long as they what they came up with supported attacking Iraq and they could sell it to Congress and the American people. And Powell's job was to sell it too. Powell had access to State Dept's INR intel as well as other agencies and information if he was interested. (And Powell's State department was already planning for post-Saddam Iraq in summer of 2002.)

Yes, there was a "cabal" and they were all part of it.