It was not "faulty intelligence" goddamn it!

[annabanana]

It was hunted for, searched for, demanded, massaged.. And clumsily crafted

yellow cake my ass

[leveymg]

1. The term the CIA Inspector General used was "cherry-picked." The Iraq disinfo program even had its

own department in the Pentagon, the Office of Special Plans (OSP), run by the usual leading DoD necons. Another term often used to describe the systematic falsification of intelligence leading up to the Iraq War were "stovepiped." As the trial of Col. Franklin showed, this also extended into "salting" Iran files with information "suggested" by AIPAC and the Mossad Chief of Station, Naor Gilon.

In other words, there was and is a Big Lie factory.

[KingCharlemagne]

13. And never forget the White House Iraq Group whose mission seems to have been

to "catapult the propaganda" relentlessly about Iraqi WMD and ties to Al Q'aida. Does not rise to the constitution's definition of 'treason,' but certainly romps across various Federal statutes on fraud.

The White House Iraq Group (aka, White House Information Group or WHIG) was an arm of the White House whose purpose was to inform the public about the purpose of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The task force was set up in August 2002 by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and chaired by Karl Rove to coordinate all of the executive branch elements in the run-up to the war in Iraq. However, it is widely speculated that the intention of the task force was "escalation of rhetoric about the danger that Iraq posed to the U.S., including the introduction of the term 'mushroom cloud'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Iraq_Group

But we have to look forward, not backward. Oh, brave new world!

[raccoon]

2. Preach it, sister! Those warmongers were hell-bent on invading Iraq. nt

[daleanime]

3. K&R.....

[Omaha Steve]

4. I think you mean made up

[Snoopy 7]

5. RNN has this

It's an interview with an ex CIA agent you can find it on YouTube:
Why Didn’t Bush-Cheney Prevent 9/11? ex CIA John Kiriakou

[brush]

6. The Brits termed it "ginned up" . . .

critics here used "cherry picked".

However you slice it, it was BS.

[Caijoe]

24. Actually...

the UK's Sir Richard Dearlove said intelligence was being fixed around the policy. Blair was fully aware he was being a lapdog.

[brush]

25. Yeah, the term "ginned up" was used by some Brits at the time. nt

[erronis]

30. Lapdog does bring a nasty image to mind - wasn't Blair called W's Poodle?

I would think lap dancers would have more taste than poodles.

[JawJaw]

49. "Sexed Up"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexed_up

[deutsey]

7. Yep...they're desparately trying hard to re-write history,

aren't they?

Well, if Reagan can now be revered by Republicans and even Democrats and if people believe Bush actually won the 2000 election, I suppose the lies that led to invading Iraq can be dropped down the memory hole, too.

[malaise]

8. +1,000

and pre-planned before 9/11

[malthaussen]

9. Oh, I am quite satisfied the intelligence was faulty.

Just depends on the meaning of "intelligence."

-- Mal

[IHateTheGOP]

10. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld should be executed...

For war crimes and violations of international treaties and the US Constitution. Over 1 million innocents were killed so that Bush could be a "wartime president" (his words). When Bush was governor of Texas he said he would attack Iraq if he won the Presidency. True, do the research.

[Augiedog]

11. Invented

Dick(less) Cheney instructed the CIA to create the evidence needed to justify the Iraq invasion, aluminum tubes and all. Allowing the "faulty" intelligence argument to have validity is to allow war criminals an escape mechanism. If congressional hearings were ever needed, for this they beg. The reason they won't occur is because so many are complicit, they allowed themselves to be cowed by the vile, hate filled Islamphobe, and pretty much phobic about every thing possible, that is Cheney and his butt puppet.....yeah you know whom I'm inferring. No critical thinking American believed that invading Iraq was rational or justified. History, if not the criminal justice system, will indict the Bush administration for its war crimes. Never forget that World War Two war criminals were and are pursued to this day.

[Demeter]

12. There are too few critically thinking Americans, though

It is a real shortage. And H-1B visas won't fix it, either.

[erronis]

32. I remember the many times the Chinney Cortege sped across the Potomac bridges

To smack the CIA into line. Gotta give that SOB only one thing - when he's after money he's heartless.

DC at that time was nothing more than a series of 5-20 black vehicles coursing through the streets and intersections many times a day.

Ah, the power and the glory. And the pizza arrived hot!

[Enthusiast]

38. +1 a whole bunch!

[SCantiGOP]

14. good point

When you deliberately cook up false evidence, it cannot be called "faulty." It is actually perfect, in that it accomplishes what you want to achieve. Don't forget that a couple of years before 9/11 the American Standard (which called itself the journal of the neo-con movement) had published a cover story called "The Case for Regime Change in Iraq." 9/11 gave them the perfect opening to accomplish their goal.

[valerief]

15. PNAC cited they wanted it in 1997. nt

[stevenleser]

16. It's worse than that. It's claiming to want for over a year to get the UN Weapons inspection teams

into Iraq, and once accomplished, ignoring them and their reports showing no WMD found during their 3+ months on the ground in Iraq.

[JHB]

50. ...and finally, after none were found, claiming Saddam kept inspectors out.

Millions of people suddenly forgot why they'd ever heard of Hans Blix.

[rock]

17. You are, of course, correct

They started with the conclusion and derived everything from that.

[WilliamPitt]

18. It was a payday

Period.

[yellowcanine]

19. Don't forget the aluminum tubes....

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Presentation slide used by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Aluminum tubes purchased by the nation of Iraq were intercepted in Jordan in 2001. In September 2002 they were publicly cited by the White House as evidence that Iraq was actively pursuing an atomic weapon. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many questioned the validity of the claim. After the invasion, the Iraq Survey Group determined that the best explanation for the tubes' use was to produce conventional 81-mm rockets; no evidence was found of a program to design or develop an 81-mm aluminum rotor uranium centrifuge.[1]

[KansDem]

21. David Albright warned that these tubes were not for nuclear enrichment.

He wanted to go on record with this information, but he was ignored in favor of the Bush Administration's lies.

When Jon Stewart interviewed Judith Miller about this, she said--

Judith Miller has a right to defend herself. I wish that the WMD narrative did not fall on the shoulders of an important, accomplished woman journalist. But the devastating and untenable results—and all the women and children killed in Iraq as a direct result of this poor reporting—are too important to erase or mislead, and the backpedaling is not acceptable. When Stewart describes that weapons expert David Albright tried alert her to the fact that the WMD story was fishy, Miller literally says, “I think the story got cut for space.”

http://jezebel.com/jon-stewart-grilling-iraq-war-slimeball-judith-miller-i-1701210611

Got that? A noted weapons inspector wanted to go on record in reporting these tubes were not for uranium enrichment but rather for rockets. However, considering this report would run contrary to the Bushistas' propaganda, he was ignored. And Miller's explanation why his story didn't appear in the NYT? The story got cut for space.

Responsible journalism? These people can go to Hell!

[Enthusiast]

37. +1 a whole bunch!

[unblock]

20. well that is the signature characteristic of pretty much all republican ideas....

[world wide wally]

22. So many of these politicians say. "Everyone who saw the intelligence agreed that we had to invade

blah, blah, blah……."

So, how does the Governor of Florida get to see CIA reports on international intelligence anyway?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. The term is "Cherry Picked"....

The same thing they do to the Bible.

[blm]

26. MANUFACTURED intel. The Iraq intel books were COOKED according to dozens

of analysts who were ignored by 99% of corporate, mainstream media. Gee - wonder why Landay and Strobel were NEVER booked on ANY of the 'news' shows to talk about their report.

[DCBob]

27. Indeed.. they assembled intel to justify what they had already decided to do.

It was despicable.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

28. They couldn't even find this yellow cake

[kentuck]

29. They lied to the American people.

Not just Democrats. I think your point bears repeating over and over. We should not be making our foreign policy decisions around a "big lie".

[hootinholler]

31. The Office of Special Plans

Part of the pentagon, not even the CIA, manufactured the intel between poker games with Randy 'Duke' Cunningham et al. (Possibly Cheney) that were serviced by hookers.

[kentuck]

33. Republicans never want to admit that they made even one little small "mistake"...

That's just the way they are. Also, they do not like to admit that they were lied to by their leaders. It has taken a long time but some are coming around to the truth. That is good. Because it is dangerously wrong to try and make foreign policy around a "big lie". And that is the reality we have been working with since the invasion of Iraq. The American people were lied to. Not just the Democrats that were lied to. Everyone.

[sorechasm]

48. Republicans are like one of George Castanza's girlfriends...

...Why would anyone go out with that guy? Do they like being lied to?

[ChisolmTrailDem]

34. Neocons/PNAC-planned in 1997. Neocons plotted 9/11 with Saudi friends. Neocons invaded Iraq. nt

[Enthusiast]

36. +1 You nailed it.

[thecrow]

55. Didn't Jeb sign that too???

[Enthusiast]

35. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch! The faulty intelligence narrative has got to go!

[Quixote1818]

39. They would have attacked every country in the Middle East if they could

to put their own puppet administration in and get control of the oil. It was a simple plan, trump up fears, get support and send in the troops from all the poor families.

[lonestarnot]

40. And in general fucking fixed.

[L0oniX]

41. Facts fixed! ...because they were broken.

[Roland99]

42. Seymour Hersh laid it all out in The Stovepipe and in Selective Intelligence

in the New Yorker

And Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski in The New Pentagon Papers/Hijacking Catastrophe

[RVN VET]

43. The only "faulty intelligence" was the intelligence of the American people.

How many Americans fell for the bull sh*t when it was being shoved in their faces? How many remain true eaters of said bull sh*t even today? And how many eagerly await the next war?

[secondwind]

44. For an entire year all we heard about was Iraq, Iraq... Bush had an agenda from the start. n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

45. He started bombing Iraq in early February, 2001

In his words, "There's no doubt his (Saddam's) hatred is mainly directed at us," Bush said. "There's no doubt he can't stand us. After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=90764

[Warren DeMontague]

46. Don't mention the war

Speaking of "Fawlty"

[Warren DeMontague]

47. It was known to be a lie at the time. Like the 16 words in the SOTU.

He said it AFTER it was widely known, not to be true. I remember screaming at my old low-def CRT television.

[Fumesucker]

52. Not that widely known...

For instance the presumptive Democratic nominee for 2016 didn't know it until long, long after.


No one is perfect and we need not to let the perfect be the enemy of the not perfect.

[karynnj]

51. the decision to go to war was in March 2003 NOT October 2002

That should always be Democrat point

number

one.

Jeb Bush and others emphasize that everyone had the same intelligence. Here, there is a BIG lie and a smaller lie. In october, they really did not have exactly the same intelligence and some in Congress had more than others. But the votes were not on is there proof we need to go to war now - in fact even Bush said ir was not a vote. That, though huge, is the smaller lie.

The big lie is that the intelligence after 5 months of inspections - there had previously been none sine 1998 - mwas far greater than the intelligence in 2003.

For the last decade, these dates have been conflated and to some degree the left has helped with the conflating out of anger at the vote. It is reasonable to still say that vote was wrong, but it was not the same as the decision a half year later

[Diclotican]

58. karynnj

karynnj

The Reason about why US and UN have had no inspections in Iraq since 1998 was because US had messed it up when CIA was trying it best to make sure Saddam Hussein was executed by his own guard - but the Iraqi counter-intelligence was better han CIA believed - and many who had been contacted by CIA operatives, under disguise of inspectors was suddenly disappearing from the face of the earth - no one know where they was - even if some believed them to be dead - killed by the counter-intelligence... And as a result of it - the whole system of inspectors was stopped - and more or less tron out of the country all togheter...

Diclotican

[karynnj]

59. they left before the bombing announced by Clinton

That was said to be in retaliation to an Iraqi plot to kill GHWB.

The point was there were 4 years since the last inspectors were there, compared to inspectors being there and Iraq even destroying missiles they had said to go too far.

[Diclotican]

60. karynnj

karynnj

That is one of the reasons they had to leave Iraq - because Clinton had announced to bomb Iraq - as thank you, for trying to kill GHWB - who was also one of the reasons Jr claimed to have the right to get to kill Saddam Hussain - because "hey, this is the man who tried to kill my dad" - to paraphrase what GWB stated before the war.. I do rembember when Iraq got bombed in 1998, I saw it on CNN more or less "Live" 3 in the morning where i live - I'm not really sure I got it all as I fall asleep around that time, and wake up 6 in the morning on the sofa - rather uncomfortable I would say - as the sofa is 5-10cm to short for me to really lay in - but anyway :p

But the facts - as many have written about then, and after the war started - One of the reasons US was more or less booted out of Iraq in 1998, was because CIA had tried to get people who had inside knowledge about the inner working of the Iraqi State - to if possible assassinate the Iraqi President - who was WAY outside of the premises for CIA being there in the first place - who was to make sure Iraq do not was hiding any chemical or biological weapons - of for that matter any ambition of making nuclear weapons..

Diclotican

[liberal N proud]

53. We never heard about yellow cake since that time.

It is amazing that once the bombs started dropping, no mention of finding yellow cake were ever mentioned.

[peacebird]

54. They lied us into war.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/opinion/paul-krugman-errors-and-lies.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-right-region%AEion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=2

[DFW]

56. It was made-up fiction. No "intelligence" was considered when forming the decision

I know Joe Wilson and Valerie. There was no "faulty" interpretation of what Joe reported from Africa. He was sent to Niger to find out if Saddam was looking to acquire yellow cake to have uranium to play with. The answer was NO. Cheney and Wolfowitz must have known this before he even went. They just expected Joe to obediently report a different result, or at least shut up when they "edited" his report. When he spoke out, they destroyed Valerie in revenge, expecting her secrecy vows as a CIA operative to force her to shut up and take it. But Joe didn't work for the Agency, and he didn't shut up. oops.

[Diclotican]

57. annabanana

annabanana

And the sad part is - the truth about how wrong the neo-cons and the Bush administration was - was all along open to everyone who was digging into it - as millions of us was against the war - the information about how bad the lies, the swindle - the making up of weapons of mass destruction - WMD - was pretty well known, long before the war started...


The Neo-cons - at least the ones who made it possible, and most of the Bush administration, from Bush jr should, if any justice is to be served - be arrested, prosecuted - and if possible, convicted for war crimes, war against peace, plotting to wage war and a tonnes of other reasons...

We who was against the war in Iraq - from the beginning, was in the right here - and everyone, who claimed we was wrong - should at least make a apology for the fact that they was in the wrong - even though I suspect they never to do anything like it - as it would be to much for them to even manage to do... Then better just make it about "faulty intelligence" or something like that...

It was no faulty intelligence - it was no mistakes - it was no misunderstanding of the evidence in the front of us....


It was A LIE - A Lie the Neo-Cons already in the early 1990s was planning and plotting for - and who they first tried to get Clinton on - but he refused even to talk to the neo-cons - and got blown away with the Lewinsky affair... And in GWB they got their man - even if he was properly not the one pulling the strings - thats for Cheney I suspect


Diclotican

[woo me with science]

61. K&R