Iraq Data Not Old, Bush* Aides Insist

[kskiska]

Rice, Powell Refute Committee Assertion That Intelligence Was 5 Years Out of Date

President Bush's senior foreign-policy advisers yesterday disputed assertions by the leaders of the House intelligence committee that the administration waged war against Iraq based largely on information about Iraq's weapons programs that was five years old, when U.N. inspectors left the country.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice told "Fox News Sunday" that "there was an enrichment of the intelligence from 1998 over the period leading up to the war" and that Saddam Hussein had "very good programs in weapons of mass destruction. . . . It was a gathering danger."

(snip)

Graham said he was struck by how much of the NIE's information was dated prior to 1998, when U.N. inspectors left the country. "Much of it was based on information that was, in some cases, a decade or more old."

Asked about Rice's statement that there was "enriching" new information gathered since 1998 in the NIE, Graham responded: "I'm not aware of what would have been the enriching information."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14347-2003Sep28.html

[hippiechick]

1. Of course it's not old, it was all made up just since last year !!

:hippie:

[Garion_55]

2. Thats not what Rumseld said in July.

''The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq's pursuit'' of weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. ''We acted because we saw the evidence in a dramatic new light -- through the prism of our experience on 9-11.''

so which one is lying?

[shockingelk]

3. precicely the quote that came to my mind

Things are getting more insane that I even would have anticipated!

[rman]

4. tip for the WH: get your story straight *before* it gets to the media

along the same lines: get your story straight *before* you go to war

[Spentastic]

5. Admission?

"good programs in weapons of mass destruction. . . . It was a gathering danger"

Programs? We didn't go to war for programs did we?

[niceypoo]

6. Last night on Russert she kept saying "In 97" when............

refering to intellegence used by bush in his reasoning to invade. Everytime she said it she got a pompous grin on her face. "We used the same intellegence the previous admin used whenm they bombed Iraq." They are now officially blaming Clinton on the matter. No one dares ask, "Why didnt you use 2003 intellegence instead?"

[bvar22]

7. Condo and Powell right!

The intelligence they used to sell their pre-emptive Invasion & Occupation of Iraq was NOT 5 years old.....most of it was over 10 years old.