Walter Pincus: CIA Warned of Negative Outcomes-anarchy in Iraq, global US antipathy

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060200905.html?nav=rss_nation

Before War, CIA Warned of Negative Outcomes
Analysts in 2002 Described Worst-Case Scenarios, Including Anarchy in Iraq, Global Antipathy to U.S.

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 3, 2007; Page A08

On Aug. 13, 2002, the CIA completed a classified, six-page intelligence analysis that described the worst scenarios that could arise after a U.S.-led removal of Saddam Hussein: anarchy and territorial breakup in Iraq, a surge of global terrorism, and a deepening of Islamic antipathy toward the United States.

Titled "The Perfect Storm: Planning for Negative Consequences of Invading Iraq," the paper, written seven months before the war began, also speculated about al-Qaeda operatives taking "advantage of a destabilized Iraq to establish secure safe havens from which they can continue their operations," according to a report about prewar intelligence recently released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The report said the CIA paper also cautioned about outcomes such as declining European confidence in U.S. leadership, Hussein's survival and retreat with regime loyalists, Iran working to install a friendly regime "tolerant of Iranian policies," Afghanistan tipping into civil strife because U.S. forces were not replaced by United Nations peacekeepers and troops from other countries, and violent demonstrations in Pakistan because of its support of Washington.

Before the war, while the Bush administration was putting a spotlight on the CIA's intelligence on Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be wrong, it either buried or ignored the agency's more accurate assessments of the problems that could emerge in the aftermath of regime change in Iraq, the Senate report said.

more...

[Major Hogwash]

1. Of course they did, Walter, but Bush ignored them anyway.

Damn, we're not idiots.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Well, Saddam didn't survive & start a government in exile.

Other than that, it looks pretty much like we're living out the worst-case scenario.

But who could have predicted it?