Wow! Olberman's Guest was devastating on Bush's

[joemurphy]

argument that Congress had the same intelligence as Bush.

An unequivocal no to that contention.

[leftchick]

1. can you give a rundown?

I just got home and missed that part.

[joemurphy]

14. It was a UPI Correspondent specializing in intelligence issues

named Richard Sale. Sale said that Congress, unlike the Executive Branch, is a consumer of intelligence and not a producer of it. As such it has no ability to assess the conclusions that the Executive Branch presents to it. Sale said that Congress would have to have its own counterintelligence organ to analyze intelligence conclusions presented to it by the Administration.

Olberman pointed out that the National Intelligence Estimate that was presented to Congress contained statements to the effect that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger, that it had mobile labs capable of manufacturing chemical and biological weapons, and that Saddam was training Al-Qaida operatives in the use of WMDs. Sale stated that Congress was being presented with conclusions and would have been in no position to assess their merits unless the Administration also passed on the qualifiers to these assessments -- such as the fact that many suspected the validity of the Niger documents (which ultimately turned out to be forged); that the "mobile labs" intel came from someone code-named Curveball that German intelligence had termed a drunken liar; and that the Al-Qaida training assessment came from someone named Al-Libi who the CIA did not feel was reliable (and who later recanted claiming the statements were coerced by torture).

Sale was succinct and devastating. He said that Congress was being presented with facts and given no means to analyze the veracity of the facts. He concluded that Bush's contention that Congress had the same intelligence as he did was simply not true.

[leftchick]

18. so surprise! bush lied. Again!

Thank you so much for that joemurphy. Excellent review and content!

:hi:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. He said Congress is a consumer of intelligence -- it doesn't analyze it.

So obviously all they had is whatever bullpucky Bush chose to feed them -- they had no ability to determine whether it was flawed.

[joemurphy]

20. Actually it was worse than that.

According to Harry Reid, Congress only got copies of the NIE on Iraq on October 8, 2005 -- around 3 days before it passed the Iraq War Resolution giving Bush his blank check to commence hostilities whenever he wanted. In fact, debate on the Resolution had started before Congress even saw the NIE. It was a lengthy document and, apparently, only 17 Congressmen actually even read it. Most relied on Administration briefings concerning its contents.

What a fiasco!

[Faygo Kid]

3. It's time for some real intelligence. Like here.

[LSparkle]

6. That picture is seriously disturbing ...

Richard Sale (the guest) was EXCELLENT -- really spelled it out concisely (and skewered Shrubya's words today).

[ashling]

13. So that's where * learned abou Duct Tape

Red Green Show - haven't seen it in a while

[Pam-Moby]

4. Yes, it was very well said.

Keith has some good news these days.

[slor]

5. Richard Sale...hope we saved a clip...

he was sank the chimp's argument.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. Who is he?

[slor]

10. UPI Intelligence Analyst n/t

[Burried News]

8. Mark Shields kicked ass on the Lehrer News Hour.

Ray Suarez was also very smooth with the Bush mouthpiece he interviewed.
He never contradicted him but the question line was very logical and controlled. The guy referred to the Republicans as "the ruling party". Usually they'll say the party in power or the majority party. This is the first time I have ever heard an American Political Party spokesmen refer to their party as "the rulling party".

The Democrats ought to push the ReTHUGS on this and hit the Party before country meme.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. An important theme the Dems should push is "one party rule". How we have

had it in recent years in America.

Like China and the old Soviet Politburo. Like Cuba.

Everyone happy with the result?

[MsMagnificent]

21. Excellent point

Yes, "one party rule" deserves lots of repetition!!!

[Cha]

15. That pisses me off..they don't rule

me..they don't even govern ..all they do is dirty campaigning.

[TrueAmerican]

17. That's just it

Just keep calling them "the ruling party" and it will have a devasting backlash. It's just that simple. Americans will start to wake up.

[NNN0LHI]

9. That was the UPI (Moonie Times) Terra correspondent!

When the Moonies are taking shots at Bushit he is done.

Don

[pdxmom]

12. Sounds like the MSM is not going to let Bush get away with

even more lies. Good for them.

[niallmac]

16. Sounds to me like Olberman was criticizing Bush

before criticizing Bush was cool. He's on the cutting edge of journalism as a result as is
TDS.

[Burried News]

19. Nom and Kick