CIA review faults prewar plans

[sabra]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-11-cia-iraq-report_x.htm

CIA review faults prewar plans
By John Diamond, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq.

Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says. The report was written by a team of four former CIA analysts led by former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr.

"In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right," they write.

White House spokesman Fred Jones said Tuesday that the administration considered many scenarios involving postwar instability in Iraq. The report's assertion "has been vehemently disputed," he said.

[rocktivity]

1. The Bush Empire FABRICATED the pre-war intelligence!!!

And force-fed it to the CIA via their Office Of Special Plans--in fact, THAT WAS THE SPECIAL PLAN!!!

:headbang:
rocknation

[ewagner]

2. Hmmmmmm

I thought Porter Goss was supposed to keep these kind of reports from becoming public....

There is one thing that has confused me though....

First, I have great respect for former Senator Bob Graham. I believed last year and also for the last 35 years that I've known him, that he is a good, honest man.

Second, when Bob Graham gave Porter Goss unqualified support for the position of DCI, I was very angry.

but

The question eventually came to mind: If I trusted Bob Graham's judgement before, why shouldn't I trust him now?

Maybe Bob knew something we didn't.

We can always hope anyway.

e

[goforit]

4. Well, I wouldn't go as far to elevate Goss or Graham,

I'm not quite sure if Goss did this voluntarily.

My trust for Graham,even though he always does appear genuine, is as far as it is for any politician.
Which unfortunately isn't very far.

If the news reports were right,I always questioned why he and Sen. Biden were having breakfast with the top Pakistani Intellegence officer on the morning of 911.
I'm sure it could have been a set up against Graham and Biden as the
* cabal would use it against them to keep them quiet.

But as always there are many unanswered questions.

[ewagner]

5. I know that Graham took

his responsibilities on the Senate Intelligence Committee quite seriously and he was well-respected as an "expert" on intelligence matters.

That meeting on the morning of 9/11/01 has always struck me as being something that could have (eventually)blown the lid off of AQ's plans.

[hang a left]

8. Aren't there though...

Those unanswered questions.

[goforit]

3. Well, well, well, USA Today. Tou're finally questioning Bush's actions

[Rose Siding]

6. Looks like WHIG is taking fire on multiple fronts

:woohoo:

[katty]

9. Swarming the bunker time...Frist getting hit again today

[justgamma]

7. Well duh!

Anybody with common sense could have told them how it would turn out over there.

[deadparrot]

10. US ignored forecasts of Iraqi ethnic turmoil-CIA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration paid scant attention to prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq predicting the ethnic and tribal turmoil that now threatens the future of the country, a newly released 2004 CIA report said.

The report said U.S. policymakers instead concentrated more on the agency's assessments of Iraq's weapons program, which helped them make the case for the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq but which turned out to be flawed and misleading.

"Intelligence assessments on post-Saddam issues were particularly insightful," said the report.

But it added: "In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program) where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051012/ts_nm/iraq_usa_cia_dc

[G_j]

11. NYT: Report Says White House Ignored C.I.A. on Iraq Chaos

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1013-02.htm

Published on Thursday, October 13, 2005 by the New York Times

Report Says White House Ignored C.I.A. on Iraq Chaos
by Douglas Jehl

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 - A review by former intelligence officers has concluded that the Bush administration "apparently paid little or no attention" to prewar assessments by the Central Intelligence Agency that warned of major cultural and political obstacles to stability in postwar Iraq.

The unclassified report was completed in July 2004. It appeared publicly for the first time this week in Studies in Intelligence, a quarterly journal, and was first reported Wednesday in USA Today. The journal is published by the Center for the Study of Intelligence, which is part of the C.I.A. but operates independently.

The review was conducted by a team led by Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy director of central intelligence, working under contract for the C.I.A. It acknowledged the deep failures in the agency's prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons programs but said "the analysis was right" on cultural and political issues related to postwar Iraq.

Mr. Kerr's review did not describe those findings in detail. But The New York Times first reported last year that two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 had predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.

Those reports were by the National Intelligence Council, the highlevel group responsible for producing the government's most authoritative intelligence assessments.


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