LAT: Flaws Cited in Powell's U.N. Speech on Iraq-State Dept analysts

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-powell15jul15,1,2621877,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Days before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was to present the case for war with Iraq to the United Nations, State Department analysts found dozens of factual problems in drafts of his speech, according to new documents contained in the Senate report on intelligence failures released last week.

Two memos included with the Senate report listed objections that State Department experts lodged as they reviewed successive drafts of the Powell speech. Although many of the claims considered inflated or unsupported were removed through painstaking debate by Powell and intelligence officials, the speech he ultimately presented contained material that was in dispute among State Department experts.

<snip>

Offering the first detailed look at claims that were stripped from the case for war advanced by Powell, a Jan. 31, 2003, memo cataloged 38 claims to which State Department analysts objected. In response, 28 were either removed from the draft or altered, according to the Senate report, which was released Friday and included scathing criticism of the CIA and other U.S. intelligence services.

The analysts, describing many of the claims as "weak" and assigning grades to arguments on a 5-star scale, warned Powell against making an array of allegations they deemed implausible. They also warned against including Iraqi communications intercepts they deemed ambiguous and against speculating that terrorists might "come through Baghdad and pick-up biological weapons" as if they were stocked on store shelves.

http://images.latimes.com/media/acrobat/2004-07/13418408.pdf

[creeksneakers2]

1. If this becomes an issue

There is no way Bush can sell the public on the idea that Powell didn't tell him about the flaws in the WMD case. Even if Powell didn't tell the president, that looks really bad too. I wish Kerry would pick up on this.