WP/Reuters: Congress report faults U.S. intelligence on Iran

[DeepModem Mom]

Congress report faults U.S. intelligence on Iran
By Richard Cowan
Reuters
Wednesday, August 23, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. intelligence community is ill-prepared to assess Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and its intentions for developing weapons of mass destruction, a congressional report said on Wednesday.

Noting "significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the various areas of concern about Iran," the House Intelligence Committee staff report questioned whether the United States could even effectively engage in talks with Tehran on ways to diffuse tensions.

The Bush administration said it was handling the problem.

"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is already taking steps along the lines the committee has recommended," said a spokeswoman, reading from a statement....

***

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Washington said was aimed at rooting out weapons of mass destruction, huge gaps in America's intelligence-gathering capability were exposed....The House panel's report warned of similar inadequacies in the quality of U.S. intelligence on Iraq's neighbor Iran....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082301309.html

[Barrett808]

1. The direct result of blowing Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings

The Bush mob doesn't want to know -- that way, they can make up any silly thing.

[Ready4Change]

30. I agree.

The outing of Plame can now either be viewed as a disastrous "accident" or as treasonous abuse of power. Either way: Heads Should Roll.

I seem to recall Bush promising to fire the outers. Since he wont do the job, Congress should fire him.

Impeachment. Now.

[liberal N proud]

2. More bad intelligence

Can these people get anything straight?

[Sapere aude]

3. That's alright Ceney will make up any evidence they need. n/t

[PointAndLaugh]

4. "significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding"?

Nah, forget it, too easy...

[debbierlus]

5. That is because CHALABI was a double agent & destroyed our Iran

Intelligence program:

The administration did a great job of covering their asses on this one. We all knew about the raid on Chalabi's offices and home. We all knew it was related to Chalabi providing info to Iran. This isn't my post. I put this on my blog from another DU'er on my blog (noting it was NOT my work). A must read:


TURNS OUT THE INFO PASSED BY CHALABI DESTROYED OUR WHOLE INTEL GATHERING OPERATION IN IRAN.

HE WAS A SPY PLANTED BY IRAN TO CONVINCE US TO INSTALL A GOVERNMENT FRIENDLY TO IRAN IN BAGHDAD. HE USED THE NEOCONS FOR EYERYTHING THEY WERE WORTH AND NOW WE ALL PAY!

FUCKING CHALABI! FUCKING NEOCON HACKS!
===================================================

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/10962352/ira...

(From page 5 of 6)
-Snip from a long Rolling Stone article the whole of which you should read as a preemptive on the coming moves on Iran by the neocon assholes runing the show-

"For years, the National Security Agency had possessed the codes used by Iran to encrypt its diplomatic messages, enabling the U.S. government to eavesdrop on virtually every communication between Tehran and its embassies. After the U.S. invaded Baghdad, the NSA used the codes to listen in on details of Iran's covert operations inside Iraq. But in 2004, the agency intercepted a series of urgent messages from the Iranian embassy in Baghdad. Intelligence officials at the embassy had discovered the massive security breachtipped off by someone familiar with the U.S. code-breaking operation.

The blow to intelligence-gathering could not have come at a worse time. The Bush administration suspected that the Shiite government in Iran was aiding Shiite insurgents in Iraq, who were killing U.S. soldiers. The administration was also worried that Tehran was secretly developing nuclear weapons. Now, crucial intelligence that might have shed light on those operations had been cut off, potentially endangering American lives.

On May 20th, shortly after the discovery of the leak, Iraqi police backed by American soldiers raided Chalabi's home and offices in Baghdad. The FBI suspected that Chalabi, a Shiite who had a luxurious villa in Tehran and was close to senior Iranian officials, was actually working as a spy for the Shiite government of Iran. Getting the U.S. to invade Iraq was apparently part of a plan to install a pro-Iranian Shiite government in Baghdad, with Chalabi in charge. The bureau also suspected that Chalabi's intelligence chief had furnished Iran with highly classified information on U.S. troop movements, top-secret communications, plans of the provisional government and other closely guarded material on U.S. operations in Iraq. On the night of the raid, The CBS Evening News carried an exclusive report by correspondent Lesley Stahl that the U.S. government had "rock-solid" evidence that Chalabi had been passing extremely sensitive intelligence to Iranevidence so sensitive that it could "get Americans killed."

The revelation shocked Franklin and other members of Feith's office. If true, the allegations meant that they had just launched a war to put into power an agent of their mortal enemy, Iran. Their manthe dissident leader who sat behind the first lady in the president's box during the State of the Union address in which Bush prepared the country for warappeared to have been working for Iran all along.

Franklin needed to control the damage, and fast. He was one of the very few in the government who knew that it was the NSA code-breaking information that Chalabi was suspected of passing to Iran, and that there was absolute proof that Chalabi had met with a covert Iranian agent involved in operations against the U.S. To protect those in the Pentagon working for regime change in Tehran, Franklin needed to get out a simple message: We didn't know about Chalabi's secret dealings with Iran.

Franklin decided to leak the information to a friendly contact in the media: Adam Ciralsky, a CBS producer who had been fired from the CIA, allegedly for his close ties to Israel. On May 21st, the day after CBS broadcast its exclusive report on Chalabi, Franklin phoned Ciralsky and fed him the information. As the two men talked, eavesdroppers at the FBI's Washington field office recorded the conversation.

More at link...


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

[AlamoDemoc]

8. I think we continue to underestimate Middle East thinking of us

and their intelligence capability around the world. In other words, Europeans have better idea of how the Middle East conducts their intelligence, and they are doing a lot better, which explains their take on human intelligence than ours of rendition, and round up without a trial and due process.

[leveymg]

33. Franklin was indicted and convicted for espionage on behalf of Mossad,

not Iran. Chalabi was indeed arrested on behalf of the CIA at the same time that Franklin was charged by the FBI, but Ahmed was then let go on the orders of the White House, and was even awarded the most lucrative post in the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi Gov't, head of the oil ministry.

What are we to make of this seeming contradiction in the treatment of these two co-conspirators in the interlinked Niger Yellowcake forgery and OSP-AIPAC spy rings that stovepiped false documents "proving" the existence of Iraq and Iran WMDs to the WHIG?

Has anyone even begun to consider the obvious possibility here that Chalabi is a double-agent, and that he's been feeding disinformation to both Washington and Tehran?

This is obviously far more complicated, and involves bigger players than just Iranian intelligence.

[UpInArms]

6. LOL! "The Bush administration said it was handling the problem."

yeppers - they're "handling the problem" alright! They're now saying that Iran is arming those terrasts in Iraq - we don't need no stinking nuke intelligence - we got yer slam dunk right here!

:eyes:

[I_Make_Mistakes]

7. Arming those terrasts in Iraq with the C4 that went missing when our

military didn't have enough man-power to secure those ammo sites? They really do think that our attention span is short, well, let's ask the DICK about the artilery sites that were passed by and mysteriously raided and emptied by the time we got around to think about securing them!

[acmejack]

9. HMX, RDX & PETN were ripped off!

194.741 tonnes of HMX, 141.233 tonnes of RDX, and 5.800 tonnes of PETN.

HMX HMX, also called octogen or cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine, is a powerful, and relatively insensitive, nitroamine high explosive, chemically related to RDX.

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

RDX Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, also known as RDX, cyclonite, hexogen, and T4, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications.

In its pure, synthesized state RDX is a white, crystalline solid. As an explosive it is usually used in mixtures with other explosives and plasticizers or desensitizers. It is stable in storage and is considered the most powerful and brisant of the military high explosives.

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

PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, also known as Penthrite) is one of the strongest known high explosives, with a relative effectiveness factor (R.E. factor) of 1.66. It is more sensitive to shock or friction than TNT or tetryl, and it is never used alone as a booster. It is primarily used in booster and bursting charges of small caliber ammunition, in upper charges of detonators in some land mines and shells, and as the explosive core of detonation cord.

PETN is one of the explosive ingredients used in Semtex plastic explosive. During World War II the M9A1 2.36" Rocket Launcher (Bazooka) shaped charge, with 8 oz of pentolite, could penetrate up to 5 inches of armor.

Demolition charge, M118, commonly called Flex-X or sheet explosive, consists of 4 half-pound sheets of flexible explosive packed in a plastic envelope. Each sheet is approximately 3 inches wide, 12 inches long, and ¼ inch thick. Note: The exact explosive contained in an M118 charge varies with the manufacturer. At present, some manufacturers use PETN as the basic explosive. Others use RDX. Charges manufactured in the future may include other explosives.

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

edit: Al Qa'qaa high explosives controversy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Missing explosives in Iraq)

The Al Qa'qaa high explosives controversy concerns the removal by Baathist insurgents of about 340 tonnes of high explosives HMX and RDX after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The explosives, considered dangerous by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), were certified by UN weapons inspectors to be inside facilities whose doors were fastened with chains and the United Nation’s seal, at the Al Qa'qaa industrial complex in Iraq in 2003. By October 2004, the facility was empty.

In October 2004, the Iraqi interim government warned the U.S. that nearly 380 tons of conventional explosives had been removed from the Al-Qa'qaa facility. The Bush Administration was criticized for failing to guard known weapons stashes of this size after the invasion. Critics of the Bush Administration claimed that U.S. forces were to blame for the looting, which put weapons that were formerly under UN control into the hands of insurgents.

The Bush Administration position before the 2004 U.S. election was to assert that the explosives were either removed by Iraq before invaders captured the facility, or properly accounted for by US forces.

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

[I_Make_Mistakes]

10. You know more about bad chemicals than I do. The point is WE

have to keep reminding the sheeple about those missing munitions, being used against our own military. God, I feel so bad for our soldiers who were sold a pack of lies and then prevented from protecting themselves from these evil products.

[acmejack]

11. I get your point.

I was just saying this shit is really effective they couldn't have ordered up better stuff for their IEDs from the Terrorist's Mail Order Catalog. It just makes me see red...

Your point is well taken!

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. "US Intelligence" - an oxymoron as deserving as "Military Intelligence".

.
.
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And I ain't talking just about the government

Y'all (s)elected Bush TWICE

We noticed . . . .

[I_Make_Mistakes]

13. Not all of us, and not even sure most of us (s)elected Bush twice.

[ConcernedCanuk]

14. But y'all let them get away with it - where's the revolution, anger, eh?

.
.
.

'nuff said

[I_Make_Mistakes]

15. You are correct! I think that I was in shock, and for a long time

after 2004. I guess WE the PEOPLE put to much stock in our elected officials, we even contributed to Kerry's fund to fight the possible illegal voting practices. I think, it was shock and I will not contribute to a campaign again for legal actions because, we got played the fools!

I think the way the whole thing went down, with promises to fight irregularities just placated us, and you are correct that was wrong.

On the upside, the primaries and normal elections in the US are upsetting the incumbents left and right, it is time for a change, WE ARE TRYING, please hang in there. If it doesn't work, I maybe calling you neighbor in a more than border way.

[ConcernedCanuk]

16. Re your hobby - we have great Eagles soaring around my town

.
.
.

Eagle feathers can be found on our shore which is the border between Quebec and Ontario

I can watch the Eagles soar above the river between the two provinces - it's amazing . . .

One of your fellow citizens just bought her retirement paradise up here - cost her a fortune - $52,000 USD for 33 acres - with a freshwater spring and a year round stream running through her property

OH

and a two-story house built with 8" logs and a full basement made from major rocks

90% wooded - so wood heat is in the near future

And anyone wonder why us Canuks luv our country so much . . .

We can take the cold -

But we certainly wouldn't want to take the "heat" y'all are getting down there!!

And I'm not talking about the temperature . . . (although that gets bad enuf down there also!)

Click on my "eyes" - that'll get you to hundreds of pictures of my "space" in Northern Ontario . . .

[I_Make_Mistakes]

17. I love Quebec (Montreal Jazz Festival is the best, oh and the.

international fireworks competition at La Ronde are spectacular).I don't do so well in the cold, so was looking to move south, but the lifestyle index isn't all that great!

I keep thinking, darn it's just I hate snow anymore!

[RonHack]

34. Loved your zoos.

I remember going to one, while my family was vacationing in Canada. It was either in Ontario or Montreal.

Loved the place. There was one exhibit, just to give you an example, where the lions and the gazelles were in the same area, in a lightly-treed plain. Except for the waist-high metal fence, you felt that they interspliced a piece of Africa with the exhibit.

You had to look VERY close to see the netting that made sure the animals stayed where they were.

Made the zoos in Massachusetts look practically UGLY.

[sabra]

18. (Congressional) Report rips U.S. intelligence on Iran

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14489338/

Report rips U.S. intelligence on Iran
House panel points to ‘major gaps,’ draws parallels to Iraq failures

WASHINGTON - The U.S. intelligence community is ill-prepared to assess Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and its intentions for developing weapons of mass destruction, a congressional report said Wednesday.

Noting "significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the various areas of concern about Iran," the House Intelligence Committee staff report questioned whether the United States could even effectively engage in talks with Tehran on ways to defuse tensions.

The Bush administration said it was handling the problem.

"The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is already taking steps along the lines the committee has recommended," said a spokeswoman, reading from a statement.

[saltpoint]

19. I'm comprehensively reassured that the "Bush administration...(is)

handling the problem."

Not.

[OhioChick]

20. The scariest part of the article is:

"The Bush administration said it was handling the problem."

[annabanana]

21. It is up to US to highlight

the "stovepiped" intel being provided to the VP by Feith's guys on this one. WE already know that corpomedia won't cover it unless we insist.

FOOL ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU.....

[Blackhatjack]

22. Obviously Congress is not buying the NeoCon reality they constructed

...which handles any real world problems you might have with intelligence.

[MrPrax]

23. They are more annoyed

by the lack of specifics they are being given for the campaign trail. Hard to sell another war if as a politicians you can't go into Possum Trot, MO and with a fire brimstone speech about the '68,000 anthrax warheads' or '16,500 VX gas laden drones' or some other 'sequence of large numbers placed in sentences with scary sounding things'.


The Neo-Cons were too busy with Lebanon that they forgot to toss a 'sexed up' dossier to the party faithful.

[Ready4Change]

24. Gee, if only we had a covert CIA operative ...

... who was assigned to study WMDs, with a focus on Iran.

I know we had one around here somewhere. Where could she have gotten to?

(Hint: Someone should take the "Plame" for her and her team not being able to provide good info right now.)

[kskiska]

25. WP: U.S. Spy Agencies Criticized On Iran

GOP-Led Panel Faults Intelligence

Thursday, August 24, 2006; A01

A key House committee issued a stinging critique of U.S. intelligence on Iran yesterday, charging that the CIA and other agencies lack "the ability to acquire essential information necessary to make judgments" on Tehran's nuclear program, its intentions or even its ties to terrorism.

The 29-page report, principally written by a Republican staff member on the House intelligence committee who holds a hard-line view on Iran, fully backs the White House position that the Islamic republic is moving forward with a nuclear weapons program and that it poses a significant danger to the United States. But it chides the intelligence community for not providing enough direct evidence to support that assertion.

"American intelligence agencies do not know nearly enough about Iran's nuclear weapons program" to help policymakers at a critical time, the report's authors say. Information "regarding potential Iranian chemical weapons and biological weapons programs is neither voluminous nor conclusive," and little evidence has been gathered to tie Iran to al-Qaeda and to the recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, they say.

(snip)

"We want to avoid another 'slam dunk,' " Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said in an interview yesterday, explaining why the staff report was made public before it had been approved by the full committee. "We think it's important for the American people to understand the kinds of pressures that we are facing and to increase the American public's understanding of Iran as a threat."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082301309.html

[AlamoDemoc]

26. I think this congress lack credibility

couple of months ago they voted for Iran resolution and never heard any expert from any intelligence agency, but were used draft resolution prepared by AIPAC, and we are here trying to find intelligence of Iran....as Lieberman said, "We voted for Saddam overthrow in congress under Clinton, and that gave way our current invasion of Iraq". I think many of us would want to pay attention to many resolutions sponsored by interest groups that become binding on our foreign policy.

[DURHAM D]

27. Boy does this sound familiar - requiring the CIA to prove a negative.

That staffer gets to decide what is the truth. Here we go again and where it stops nobody knows.

[spindrifter]

28. So where is the staff member-author's

"intelligence" coming from--I would like to see his or her credentials to write on the topic. Is it all a feed from AIPAC and think-tankers who are relatives of office-holders and appointees? Was the report written at an undisclosed location.

[Ready4Change]

29. While I understand the joining of threads...

...is it just me, or do joined threads die?

[Canuckistanian]

31. Now Shrub can't claim he has "darn good intelligence"

I hope the Generals hold this as evidence for NOT attacking Iran.

[Drops_not_Dope]

32. 2005 WP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/22/AR2005082201447.html

:smoke:

No Proof Found of Iran Arms Program
Uranium Traced to Pakistani Equipment

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 23, 2005; Page A01

Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.

"The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity.

Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium -- a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon -- with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan.

Iran has long contended that the uranium traces were the result of contaminated equipment bought years ago from Pakistan. But the Bush administration had pointed to the material as evidence that Iran was making bomb-grade ingredients.

[civildisoBDence]

35. Don't forget the 1% rule

Cheney instituted the idea that if there's a 1% chance someone might attack us, that justifies taking military action.

Intelligence is rarely if ever 100% certain. So considering the 1% rule, who needs intelligence? Any suspicion by the right neocon is reason enough for these warmongers.

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