Former CIA agent: In summer 2002, was told Bush Admin had already decided to invade Iraq

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/16/kiriakou.spy.book/

Former CIA spy speaks out in new book about war on terror

<snip>

In summer 2002, Kiriakou was back working at headquarters in Virginia when he was summoned to a top-secret meeting. He said he was told the Bush administration had decided the United States was going to invade Iraq in the spring -- it was a done deal. His job was to support the mission. Kiriakou said he was dumbfounded. "Here was someone at the CIA, obviously plugged into the plans of the executive branch, telling us that the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing." Months later, Congress passed a war resolution.

...

Kiriakou also discussed the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees.

In 2007, several years after he left the agency, Kiriakou was the first official to publicly confirm Washington's worst-kept secret: that Zubaydah had been waterboarded. He didn't have firsthand knowledge, but he said he had read cables that indicated the simulated drowning technique was used just once, because Zubaydah cracked and provided actionable intelligence.

However, a government report released in summer 2009 said the technique was actually used 83 times against Zubaydah. Kiriakou said he now feels he was duped by the agency. He questioned whether any useful information really came from the detainee and said he believes "it caused more damage to our national prestige than was worth it."

Kiriakou left the CIA in 2004 after serving 14 years in the agency. He's now a senior investigator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

[LakeSamish706]

1. My bet is that it was decided long before Bush stole the election. n/t

[Echo In Light]

2. PNAC...and the long list of helpers, who, directly & indirectly, helped make it happen

[gateley]

5. Ditto - long before 9/11 which they used as a convenient excuse. When was

Cheney divvying up the oil fields with the oil companies? Do we know when that was?

[Subdivisions]

20. February of 2001. The seats at the bush inauguration weren't even cold yet. n/t

[arcane1]

12. My bet is that it is WHY Bush stole the election

:grr:

[Subdivisions]

21. I'll call that bet. n/t

[Echo In Light]

24. ...is why SO MANY made sure the Right admin (PNAC) was in place for Big Plans

[blm]

13. recent testimony in GB revealed Blair was prepared to invade Iraq in 2000 - meaning Clinton had

been prepared to invade if/when the opportunity arose.

9-11 gave them all the cover they wanted.

[Subdivisions]

'9-11 gave them all the cover they wanted.'

How very convenient.

[aquart]

23. Clinton was planning to invade Iraq in 2000 or thereafter?

Interesting. With what army?

[blm]

25. the one WE were paying for in 2000....same one Bush led when he sat his ass in the WH in 2001.

After all the evidence being revealed at the court hearings in England, especially the news that Blair was prepared for Iraq war in 2000, why continue to pretend that Clinton was somehow not part of these matters?

[RagAss]

3. To the Greatest page !

[kenny blankenship]

4. the public debate in Congress, reflected almost daily in the press, meant nothing.

You worked in CIA, you're already supposed to know that, dummy.

[blm]

14. The IWR was just set up for distraction as a political tool to use against Dems.

They were going in no matter what - and, without the IWR they WOULD have planted WMDs.

[Mari333]

6. will the war criminals EVER be held ACCOUNTABLE? NO

we are suppposed to move foreword. (cover our own war crimes now.)



spineless.

[LakeSamish706]

7. One of the big problems I have with not holding them responsible, is how in hell

can we be charging people with crimes right now and holding them responsible? I take it we have laws for some that don't apply to others.

[cutlassmama]

9. Good point. Laws only apply to those who are not rich/powerful

[G_j]

10. might as well proclaim there is no longer such a thing as a war crime

or any crime for that matter.

[blm]

30. if you're unemployed, hungry and steal food for your kids it's a crime...if you're rich and greedy

and do whatever it takes to assuage THAT hunger, even lie a nation into war, it's not a crime. That's the Republican Way. And, unfortunately, some powerful Dems help them get away with it every step of the way.

[belpejic]

8. By fall of 2002 it was a pretty badly kept secret.

The media was so complicit in the whole charade...that period was when the NY Times lost me for good.

[blm]

11. Wow...time for open government Dems to demand hearings on this.

With Kerry chairing SFRC this country finally has a chance to get greater access to real information than we've had in many a decade.

[sabra]

15. did you see that Kiriakou is now working for the SFRC...

[blm]

26. yep - and Kerry also hired a top investigative journalist (wrote a BCCI book) Doug Frantz.

He tapped some real heavy hitters for SFRC, imo, and it looks like they CARE about getting the info out to the citizenry.

[global1]

18. My Guess Is That Hearings Will Never Happen Because.....

most likely there were some Dems that either knew about this and would be implicated in the process.

[Toasterlad]

16. Haven't We Already Heard, Like, Seventy People Say This?

They're clearly not interested in bringing Bush to justice. Why bother to stir this shit up every six months or so? Or is this just to get the Democratic base remembering how much they hated Bush, and how Obama doesn't look like him?

[lutefisk]

17. Quit looking in the past, silly. The President gave the Bush Criminals de facto pardons, right?

I guess it's some sort of Presidential courtesy that excuses war crimes.

Cool.

:shrug:

[tbyg52]

35. Oh, you're right - I'd forgotten about that

Silly me.

[Subdivisions]

19. The plan to invade Iraq was hatched in February of 2001 at

cheenie's secret energy task force meetings.

[RC]

27. Not so. It was well before that.

Bill Clinton was not supposed to win the election, H W bu$h was to. That put a crimp in the neo-con's plans because it not only gave Saddam time to destroy the WMD that Rummy gave Saddam under Reagan, but the shelf life had expired anyway by the time the criminals could steal the election for bu$h the lesser. The maximum shelf life was 10 years max for any of the WMD. Those weapons were useless, no matter what. But the neo-cons could not admit that with out jeopardizing their plans.

Cheney was Defense Secretary under Reagan when Rumsfeld gave the weapons to Saddam.



Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld,
then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.

[blm]

31. Poppy Bush didn't want to win in 1992. Jackson Stephens had Clinton lined up and when he took office

Poppy's work continued UNSCRUTINIZED. You must not be familiar with Jackson Stephens or his role as GHWBush's longtime ally who made the WalMart-China deals, brought BCCI into this country, or his role bankrolling Clinton's primary campaign.

You think Poppy Bush wanted to win in 1992 knowing full well that Dec1992 release of BCCI report would trigger hearings, fuller exposure, and certain impeachment?

[goforit]

22. So what...... No law enforcement ....let the criminals walk free.

[frylock]

28. these shitters walk while eric holder fantasizes about reading osama's corpse his miranda rights

[troubledamerican]

29. Yawn -- more Tinfoil Conspiracy Theory

like Watergate, BCCI, Iran-Contra, Gulf of Tonkin, Downing Street Memos, ENRON, Tyco, Worldcom, Iraq WMD, Valerie Plame outing, COINTELPRO...

Everybody knows there are no conspiracies

[Echo In Light]

32. lol

[Martin Eden]

37. It was an intelligence failure, I tell ya!!!

The American people were too stupid to realize they were being lied to, and they still cling to those lies rather than admit to themselves they were so easily played for fools.

[olegramps]

33. This only confirms what Richard Clarke told us years ago.

[peekaloo]

34. and Paul O'Neill.

maddening

[Martin Eden]

36. That this isn't already widely known and accepted fact ...

... speaks volumes about the power of disinformation in this country.