US Certain That Iraq Had Illicit Arms, Reportedly Ignored Contrary Reports

[Khephra]

In the two years before the war in Iraq, American intelligence agencies reviewed but ultimately dismissed reports from Iraqi scientists, defectors and other informants who said Saddam Hussein's government did not possess illicit weapons, according to government officials.

The reports, which ran contrary to the conclusions of the intelligence agencies and the Bush administration, were not acknowledged publicly by top government officials before the invasion last March. In public statements, the agencies and the administration cited only reports from informants who supported the view that Iraq possessed so-called weapons of mass destruction, which the administration cited as a main justification for going to war.

The first public hint of those reports came in a speech on Friday by Jane Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, she said "indications" were emerging from the panel's inquiry into prewar intelligence that "potential sources may have been dismissed because they were telling us something we didn't want to believe: that Iraq had no active W.M.D. programs."

Other government officials said they knew of several occasions from 2001 to 2003 when Iraqi scientists, defectors and others had told American intelligence officers, their foreign partners or other intelligence agents that Iraq did not possess illicit weapons.

more....................

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/06/politics/06WEAP.html

[Occulus]

1. Confirmation of what we already knew?

Well, DUH.

Really nice switch to see it in the NYT though. Campaign season has begun. I think perhaps the press is unlacing their gloves.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. I.m waiting for someone to name names

beside Chalabi. The next step is to not let Bush off the hook -- it lkooks as though he still can blame someone else and that his and Powell and Rice's staged managed acts can still be sanctioned with the excuse that it was "intelligence" If not, they will get away with it, I'm afraid--war criminals all , but I suspect they will get away with it.

[teryang]

3. This report is a crock

This is a complete whitewash of a disinformation campaign that originated with Cheney and von Rumsfeldt and dutifully executed by the official state liars, Tenet and Powell. Tenet and Powell both knew that estimates concerning Iraq were completely false but they had to implement the years old Bush neo-con plan to go to war.

This is a skillfully prepared revision of history that is characteristic of what one might find in a totalitarian state. It is no coincidence that it was presented at the American Enterprise Institute which is headquarters central for the neo-fascist movement.

This report is not worthy of publication. It is a tissue of cleverly constructed falsehoods.

[alcuno]

4. What would you really expect from Jane Harmon?

DINO.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. You need to revise your comments about Tenet...he and the CIA...

...have consistently reported that they could find no evidence of Iraqi WMDs. They also advised Junior not to include certain words in his now infamous State of the Union address, and also advised Powell not to use similar language in his address to the UN.

You need to look closely at the Pentagon's OSP to find out who actually was distorting/fabricating the data that was used by the NeoCons.

But yes...the NeoCons are trying very hard to push the blame for Iraq onto the CIA. The last two presidents that tried to buck the CIA failed to finish their current terms in office: JFK and Nixon. Maybe you've noticed the almost daily negative revelations about Junior and the NeoCons that have been appearing in the U. S. mainstream media since the "outing" of Plame?

[teryang]

8. I don't believe a word of what Tenet says

I respect your opinion but don't agree with it. He left himself a back door. The analysts disagreed with OSP and the disinformation, but they are just a front. Their work was massaged until it fit junta policy. Tenet has zero credibility. He lies for a living. I admit that he's clever though.

[Malva Zebrina]

10. Not clever--just has managed to adopt the rhetoric

that would fool a lot of ignorant people. A whole lot of ignorant people would describe most Americans today.

Most Americans have not paid attention at all. Tenet just runs round and round the Mulberry bush, in order to catch the weasel. It makes him look as though he is really really competent and in charge.

Actually, I think, he is compliant with Bush and willing to take the fall for Bush in order to save his job and his life's ecomonic support.

He is willing to have his entire organistation be the fall guy for a stupid little frat boy son of a former head of the CIA in order to keep getting his paychecks.

How he can justify protecting this obvious idiot, the stupid son of a Bush, is really beyond me, unless a Bush has , indeed, something on him. Then it would make sense.

Other than that, he is, in my eyes, a corrupted disgusting human being.

[salin]

7. Notice what is missing in this story... the explanation

of how this happened... stovepiping and.. The Office of Special Plans.

That entity needs to become common knowledge, and then every story or 'investigative report' that does not mention the OSP's existence, role and practices, will be discredited BY THE PUBLIC as disinformation.

The OSP has made it into numerous mainstream stories - but one mention here... and no other stories in that same source ... and that source's readers are not familiar enough in the reading of future stories to ask... but what about.. OSP.

When we see these stories - we should respond to the journalists and ask for a desire to see a followup that specifically considers the role of the OSP in the selection of which intel to focus on and which intel to dismiss.

[Bandit]

5. This can't be true Bush* said "There is no doubt Iraq has WMDs"

No doubt. 100% sure ~ Absolutely no doubt. Iraq is so mush safer now that Saddam is gone. Bush* would never lie.

[leesa]

9. First public hint? Haven't many of us here been sending these reports to

the NY Times for a couple years now? The Rats are getting nervous