By Eric S. Margolis
Having presided over the two worst intelligence disasters since Pearl Harbour - 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq - the Bush administration and its apologists are now whining, 'OK, we were wrong about Iraq's weapons and supposed threat, but so was everybody else. Besides, it was all CIA's fault.' No way. The Iraq weapons fiasco was absolutely not caused by an 'intelligence failure,' as the White House and the recent Senate whitewash claimed.
US national security and CIA were corrupted and blinded at the top by extremist ideology, cowardice, and careerism. Nor was everyone wrong about Iraq. Scores of Mideast professionals, this writer included, insisted from Day 1 that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, posed no threat to the US, and had no link to Al Qaeda. We were ignored, or dismissed as traitors or cranks.
Many veteran CIA officers dismissed alarmist claims about Iraq as politically-motivated propaganda. The US state department, US air force, and French intelligence challenged claims the Iraq had threatening offensive weapons systems. Many senior Pentagon military officers opposed invading Iraq. But the word went out: If you value your job and pension, do not, repeat, do not contradict the boss.
CIA director George Tenet, a careerist bureaucrat, not an intelligence professional, undermined his agency's ethics by eagerly pandering to all of Bush and Cheney's prejudices - over his subordinate's protests. Hand-licking took precedence over professionalism. Those with dissenting views were ignored, shunted aside, or fired.
http://www.dawn.com/2004/07/18/op.htm#3