Religions > Atheism > OT: Pre-war Intelligence "Dead Wrong" But Bush's Criminal Cadre Still Gets Off Scot Free
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Claytonus Vs. Godzilla" |
| Date: |
01 Apr 2005 09:01:07 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Pre-war Intelligence "Dead Wrong" But Bush's Criminal Cadre Still Gets Off Scot Free |
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12719799-38198,00.html
US intelligence 'still flawed'
By Steve Holland and Adam Entous in Washington
April 01, 2005
From: Reuters
US intelligence on Iraq was "dead wrong" in almost all cases before the Iraq
war and flaws are still all too common throughout an American spy community
that requires a major overhaul, a presidential commission reported today.
The commission's report, ordered by US President George W. Bush after he
launched the Iraq war two years ago based on intelligence about its weapons
programs that proved to be false, said the harm done to American credibility
"will take years to undo."
"We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of
its prewar judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the
commissioners wrote.
And at a time when the United States is accusing Iran of nuclear ambitions
and pressuring North Korea, the report said: "Across the board, the
intelligence community knows disturbingly little about the nuclear programs
of many of the world's most dangerous actors."
The presidential commission, led by appeals court judge Laurence Silberman
and former Virginia Republican Sen. Charles Robb, called for broad and deep
change in the intelligence community to make it capable of developing
long-term plans for "penetrating today's difficult targets."
"The flaws we found in the intelligence community's Iraq performance are
still all too common," they wrote.
White house spokesman Scott McClellan said the president agrees with the
commission that the intelligence community needs fundamental change. "We
welcome the report," he said.
In what amounted to a direct assault on George Tenet, who was CIA director
in the run-up to the Iraq war and gave the president his daily intelligence
briefing, the commission found that "the daily reports sent to the president
and senior policymakers discussing Iraq over many months proved to be
disastrously one-sided."
Mr Bush, accused of hyping the intelligence on Iraq in order to pursue a
costly war with a deadly aftermath, and his inner circle escaped direct
blame.
The commission said it found no evidence that the White House or the
Pentagon put political pressure on analysts to colour the intelligence to
back up their claims.
"The analysts who worked Iraqi weapons issues universally agreed that in no
instance did political pressure cause them to skew or alter any of their
analytical judgments," the report said.
But it added: "It is hard to deny the conclusion that intelligence analysts
worked in an environment that did not encourage skepticism about the
conventional wisdom."
The 600-page report sharply criticised the intelligence-gathering on Iraq by
the CIA, Defence Intelligence Agency and other agencies on Iraq before a war
fought over claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass
destruction, none of which was found.
"In the end, those agencies collected precious little intelligence for the
analysts to analyse, and much of what they did collect was either worthless
or misleading," it said.
The commission made a series of recommendations, many of which the White
House was expected to embrace.
The recommendations included:
* creation of a national counter-proliferation centre to combat the spread
of weapons of mass destruction.
* establishing a separate National Security Service within the FBI that
includes the bureau's counterintelligence and counterterrorism divisions, as
well as the Directorate of Intelligence.
* designate a point-person under the new director of national intelligence
who will be responsible for both information sharing and information
security "in order to break down cultural and policy barriers."
* create a new Human Intelligence Directorate within the CIA to ensure the
coordination of all US agencies conducting human intelligence operations
overseas.
* establish an organisation to perform only long-term and strategic analysis
under the National Intelligence Council.
* create a non-profit "sponsored research institute" that would function
outside the intelligence community and provide a "critical window" by
conducting its own intelligence research and analysis.
Mr Bush has nominated John Negroponte to become director of national
intelligence, but he is yet to be confirmed by the Senate. The job was
established to better coordinate intelligence in the wake of the Iraq
failures.
--
Clayton The Lord Of The Eternally Changing Name
AA# 1861
EAC Executive Officer In Charge Of Squandering And Wasting Valuable
Resources
"Religion is like horse laxative....if you swallow it, you'll be left
feeling empty and have a huge pile of ***** to deal with!" - Clayton
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Pre-war Intelligence "Dead Wrong" But Bush's Criminal Cadre Still Gets Off Scot Free |
01 Apr 2005 08:16:56 PM |
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Claytonus Vs. Godzilla wrote:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12719799-38198,00.html
US intelligence 'still flawed'
By Steve Holland and Adam Entous in Washington
April 01, 2005
From: Reuters
US intelligence on Iraq was "dead wrong" in almost all cases before
the Iraq
war and flaws are still all too common throughout an American spy
community
that requires a major overhaul, a presidential commission reported
today.
<snip>
"The flaws we found in the intelligence community's Iraq performance
are
still all too common," they wrote.
<snip>
"The analysts who worked Iraqi weapons issues universally agreed that
in no
instance did political pressure cause them to skew or alter any of
their
analytical judgments," the report said.
"That was so funny I dropped my gun."
- Andy Travis, "WKRP"
But it added: "It is hard to deny the conclusion that intelligence
analysts
worked in an environment that did not encourage skepticism about the
conventional wisdom."
The 600-page report sharply criticised the intelligence-gathering on
Iraq by
the CIA, Defence Intelligence Agency and other agencies on Iraq
before a war
fought over claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass
destruction, none of which was found.
"In the end, those agencies collected precious little intelligence
for the
analysts to analyse, and much of what they did collect was either
worthless
or misleading," it said.
"Little people pay taxes." - Leona Helmsley
"Little people take responsibility." - Shrub
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/000450.html
Mr. Richard CLARKE: No, I--I think they [the Shrub regime]
wanted to believe that there was a connection, but the CIA was
sitting there, the FBI was sitting there, I was sitting there
saying, 'We've looked at this issue for years. For years we've
looked for a connection, and there's just no connection.'
STAHL: And you told them that?
Mr. CLARKE: Absolutely.
STAHL: You personally?
Mr. CLARKE: I told them that, George Tenet told them that.
STAHL: Who did you tell?
Mr. CLARKE: I told that to the group, to the secretary of State,
the secretary of Defense, the attorney general. They all knew it.
STAHL: You talk about a conversation you personally had with the
president.
Mr. CLARKE: Yes, the president--we were in the Situation Room
complex. The president dragged me into a--a room with a couple
of other people, shut the door and said, 'I want you to find
whether Iraq did this.' Now, he never said, 'Make it up,' but
the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that
George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said,
'Iraq did this.'
STAHL: Didn't you tell him that you'd looked and--and there'd
been no connection?
Mr. CLARKE: I said--I said 'Mr. President, we've done this
before. We--we've been looking at this. We looked at it with an
open mind, there's no connection.' He came back at me and said,
'Iraq, Saddam--find out if there's a connection.' And in a very
intimidating way. I mean, that we should come back with that
answer. We wrote a report.
STAHL: You--in other words, you did go back and look?
Mr. CLARKE: We went back again and we looked.
STAHL: You did. And was it was a serious look? Did you really...
Mr. CLARKE: It was a serious look. We--we got together all the
FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report, we sent
the report out to CIA and down to FBI and said, 'Will you sign
this report?' They all cleared the report, and we sent it up to
the president, and it got bounced by the national security
advisor, or deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong
answer.'
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Pre-war Intelligence "Dead Wrong" But Bush's Criminal Cadre Still Gets Off Scot Free |
02 Apr 2005 04:19:46 AM |
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On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 19:01:07 +1000, "Claytonus Vs. Godzilla"
<cjfat@SPAMBLOCKphonymails.com> wrote:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12719799-38198,00.html
US intelligence 'still flawed'
Roll out the scapegoats!
[]
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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