Another "I told you so" moment
Back on July 8th I said "By blaming the State Department in particular for the junta's chronic mishandling of foreign affairs, they attack the reputations and endanger the livelihoods of career diplomats highly placed enough to know what actually happened. Self preservation will not allow that to stand."
Well…
U.S. Gave Inaccurate Iraq Picture, Ex-Intel Official Wed July 9, 2003 06:59 PM ET
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration gave an inaccurate picture of Iraq's military threat before the war, a recently retired State Department intelligence official said on Wednesday, saying intelligence reports showed that Baghdad posed no imminent threat.
"I believe the Bush administration did not provide an accurate picture to the American people of the military threat posed by Iraq," said Greg Thielmann, who retired in September from his post of director of the strategic, proliferation and military affairs office in the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research.
"Some of the fault lies with the performance of the intelligence community, but most of it lies with the way senior officials misused the information they were provided," he said at a press conference held by the Arms Control Association.
President Bush justified going to war based on the threat from Iraq's alleged biological and chemical weapons and nuclear weapons program."As of March 2003, when we began military operations, Iraq posed no imminent threat to either its neighbors or to the United States," Thielmann said.
The reason I underlined that very obvious statement is because the Bush regime is currently claiming that was NOT the reason they went to war. Nevermind that this was all they talked about in the run-up to live combat. No one is buying that line because we all know what we heard. So NBC Nightly News used the word
bogus to describe the "information" on which the claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from an African source was base… and used it more than once. And CBS News says bluntly "
Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False," saying "But the bottom line is the White House knowingly included in a presidential address information its own CIA had explicitly warned might not be true. "
Really key to note, however, is that this isn't a "highly placed source" but an
actual guy who was willing to put his name and face on his statements. Really strong statements; the Guardian reports Mr Thielmann also said there was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida— how this can be put across to the vast number pf people hypnotized by the media into believing otherwise, I have no idea but at least the truth has a witness now.
And more:
Wrestling for the Truth of 9/11The Bush administration, long allergic to the idea of investigating the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is now doing its best to bury the national commission that was created to review Washington's conduct. That was made plain yesterday in a muted way by Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor, and Lee Hamilton, the former congressman, who are directing the inquiry. When these seasoned, mild-mannered men start complaining that the administration is trying to intimidate the commission, the country had better take notice.
Doesn't look like former governer Keane is willing to either swallow the line or take the fall either. And the career diplomats in the State Department have made it clear to me they're just not having it. In the same CBS News report I mentioned above, Colin Powell explains why he made no mention of the African uranium 'connection' eight days after Bush made the categorical claim: "I didn�t use the uranium at that point because I didn�t think that was sufficiently strong as evidence to present before the world."
The Bush regime is expecting everyone to fall on their sword for them. They've forgotten you've got to be
holding the sword to fall on it.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/10/2003 11:41:03 PM |
Posted by P6 at July 10, 2003 11:41 PM
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