Ex-CIA Official: Bush Administration Misused Intelligence on Iraq

[slim 1,514]

The invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with intel.

No, I take that back. There was some pretty good intel before the invasion... not about WMD, but about a $#!^load of oil being "under" Iraq. That was the real reason for the invasion. That does exist. And no matter how they spin it, or however hard they try to connect Iraq with 9/11 or Al-Qaeda, or even the existence of WMD, they can't deny that the oil is there!

[Carol&Marc 0]

Where was mr. Pillar then????

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/...s/clinton.iraq/

PAUL R. PILLAR

Paul R. Pillar was appointed National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia in October 2000 upon returning to the Intelligence Community from the Brookings Institution, where he was a Federal Executive Fellow.

He joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1977 and has served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. He previously served in the National Intelligence Center (NIC) as one of the original members of its Analytic Group.

Hmmmmmmm, looks a little funny to me,dont you think! looks like he just happened to forget to correct Clinton on his remarks on Iraq!

It apparently doesn't make much of a difference to you, but I fail to recall the Clinton Administration invading Iraq...

Although the Clinton administration and other countries' governments also believed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction, they supported sanctions and weapons inspections as means to contain the threat, he [Mr. Pillar] said.

As it turns out, those sanctions worked. There were pretty clear indications, too, that they did prior to Bush willy nilly marching in. Those indications were not quite so clear in 1998. Remember, had the Bush administration not inhibited the ongoing work of the weapons inspectors, we would have known that there were no WMD's without wasting the lives of more than 2,000 US military personnel, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and, according to some estimates, upwards of $2,000,000,000,000.00. The Bush administration called the UN and told them to pull the inspectors out a few days before marching in - it's not like they weren't there doing their job. Let's not forget that.

oil for food???? worked well??? Hmmmmmm

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Where was mr. Pillar then????

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/02/17/...s/clinton.iraq/

PAUL R. PILLAR

Paul R. Pillar was appointed National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia in October 2000 upon returning to the Intelligence Community from the Brookings Institution, where he was a Federal Executive Fellow.

He joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1977 and has served in a variety of analytical and managerial positions, including as chief of analytic units covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. He previously served in the National Intelligence Center (NIC) as one of the original members of its Analytic Group.

Hmmmmmmm, looks a little funny to me,dont you think! looks like he just happened to forget to correct Clinton on his remarks on Iraq!

It apparently doesn't make much of a difference to you, but I fail to recall the Clinton Administration invading Iraq...

Although the Clinton administration and other countries' governments also believed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction, they supported sanctions and weapons inspections as means to contain the threat, he [Mr. Pillar] said.

As it turns out, those sanctions worked. There were pretty clear indications, too, that they did prior to Bush willy nilly marching in. Those indications were not quite so clear in 1998. Remember, had the Bush administration not inhibited the ongoing work of the weapons inspectors, we would have known that there were no WMD's without wasting the lives of more than 2,000 US military personnel, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and, according to some estimates, upwards of $2,000,000,000,000.00. The Bush administration called the UN and told them to pull the inspectors out a few days before marching in - it's not like they weren't there doing their job. Let's not forget that.

oil for food???? worked well??? Hmmmmmm

The sanctions and inspections (which worked - the WMD were gone) are not the same as "oil for food". See, once you get your facts straight and avoid mixing unrelated issues together, you'll get a much clearer picture of the world.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The Libby story really should be getting more coverage than it currently is, because it puts ####### Cheney fairly clearly in the frame for authorising the release of classified information to the media that resulted in the identification of a CIA operative.

That's usually referred to as an abuse of political authority, oh not to mention a conflict of interest with regards to national security. Bush et al keep trotting out how people are playing politics with national security, yet it seems they're already knee deep in their own bullshit.

[slim 1,514]

That's usually referred to as an abuse of political authority, oh not to mention a conflict of interest with regards to national security. Bush et al keep trotting out how people are playing politics with national security, yet it seems they're already knee deep in their own bullshit.