CIA expected Iraqis to wave US flags after invasion

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/iraq_us_cia


<snip>
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The CIA (news - web sites) was so convinced Iraqis would warmly greet US troops that it proposed smuggling hundreds of small American flags into Iraq (news - web sites) ahead of the 2003 invasion, to give them something to wave at the soldiers.



The New York Times cited unnamed intelligence officials as saying the CIA was planning to capture the event on film and beam it throughout the Arab world, taking credit for what it called the "ultimate information operation."


<snip>

However, the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) believed that many of the Iraqi towns were "ours," the daily said Wednesday.


"At first, it was going to be US flags," the paper quotes one former intelligence official as saying, "And then it was going to be Iraqi flags. The flags are probably still sitting in a bag somewhere. One of the towns where they said we would be welcomed was Nasiriyah, where Marines faced some of the toughest fighting in the war."

[juliagoolia]

1. And NO casualties either..

These people are nuts

[leftchick]

3. absolutely insane....

and that is how the rest of the world views them as well.

[WoodrowFan]

2. sounds like

sounds some admin supporters are trying to leak to discredit the CIA. I'd bet that "anlysis" was the result of tons of pressure from the White House.

[Moderator]

4. Duplicate

This article talks about the New York Times article discussed here:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=917681




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