Fw: Iraq War Intelligence

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

IRAQ WAR INTELLIGENCE
MoveOn Bulletin
Friday, July 4, 2003
Noah T. Winer, Editor
noah.winer at moveon.org
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GRASSROOTS INTERVIEW WITH REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN
U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman (Democrat-California) has long supported
crucial health and environmental protection initiatives, including universal
health insurance and the 1990 Clean Air Act. Since 2001, he has opposed
efforts by the Bush administration to block congressional oversight and roll
back health and environmental laws. Active in investigations of White House
ties to Enron, Waxman fought for disclosure of the energy industry lobbyists
who shaped the Bush-Cheney energy plan.
Rep. Waxman is in an interesting position: he voted for the Iraq war
resolution in an effort to force a consensus in the United Nations, and has
since become sharply critical of the intelligence the Bush administration
relied upon in making its case for war. His letter to President Bush on this
matter is included in this week's bulletin.
Rep. Waxman will respond to five of the top questions posed by MoveOn
members. Post your questions by Tuesday, July 8 at:
http://www.actionforum.com/forum/index.html?forum_id=259
------------------------------ 
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. One Link
3. Niger Forgeries
4. Misrepresentation
5. Powell and Blix Have Their Doubts
6. Intelligence Sources
7. Impeachment
8. British and U.S. Inquiries
9. Ends Justify the Means
10. Misleader
11. Credits
12. About the Bulletin

------------------------------ 
INTRODUCTION
Arguing for the necessity of a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, U.S. President
George W. Bush and other administration officials cited intelligence that
Saddam Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in
violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Not only had Iraq manufactured chemical and biological weapons, the
administration contended, they had attempted to obtain materials for nuclear
weaponry. In one address, Bush said: "Intelligence gathered by this and
other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess
and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."
Yet more than two months after Bush declared the end of major combat
operations in Iraq, no WMDs have been found. While he still insists such
weapons will be discovered, evidence mounts that his administration's drive
for war was based on forged, inaccurate, and deliberately misconstrued
intelligence.
------------------------------ 
ONE LINK
No time for more? Read the New York Times' Paul Krugman on the Bush
administration's "denial and deception" to justify war in Iraq and why
Congress won't confront these distortions.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0624-04.htm
------------------------------ 
NIGER FORGERIES
During the build-up to war, British and U.S. officials cited letters
indicating Iraq had attempted to obtain nuclear material from the central
African country of Niger. On March 7, shortly before the war began, Mohamed
ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
declared the documents had proven to be forgeries.
http://www.moveon.org/r?457
The C.I.A. had debunked the Niger documents long before Bush began using
them as evidence. The agency urged the State Department not to cite the
forged letters when challenging Iraq's weapons declaration in December.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-06-12-niger-usat_x.htm
In a March 17 letter to President Bush, U.S. Representative Henry Waxman
called upon the President to explain the situation. As he said, "The two
most obvious explanations -- knowing deception or unfathomable
incompetence -- both have immediate and serious implications."
http://www.house.gov/waxman/text/admin_iraq_march_17_let.htm
Rep. Waxman has prepared two excellent factsheets: "The Bush
Administration's Use of the Forged Iraq Nuclear Evidence" and "What
Intelligence Officials Knew about the Forged Iraq Nuclear Evidence."
http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_admin/admin_nuclear_evidence.htm
------------------------------ 
MISREPRESENTATION
The Observer reports that the two vehicles Bush and Blair claim are mobile
biological weapons labs are probably used to produce hydrogen for artillery
balloons.
http://www.moveon.org/r?458
A memo from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity to President Bush:
"What is at play here is a policy and intelligence fiasco of monumental
proportions."
http://truthout.org/docs_03/050503D.shtml
------------------------------ 
POWELL AND BLIX HAVE THEIR DOUBTS
"[U.S. Secretary of State Colin] Powell's team removed dozens of pages of
alleged evidence about Iraq's banned weapons and ties to terrorists from a
draft of his speech, U.S. News and World Report says today. At one point, he
became so angry at the lack of adequate sourcing to intelligence claims that
he declared: 'I'm not reading this. This is bullshit,' according to the
magazine."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,968581,00.html
UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who retired on Monday: "It is sort of
fascinating that you can have 100 percent certainty about weapons of mass
destruction and zero certainty of about where they are."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0623-10.htm
------------------------------ 
INTELLIGENCE SOURCES
From the Washington Post:
"A still-classified national intelligence report circulating within the Bush
administration...portrayed a far less clear picture about the link between
Iraq and al Qaeda than the one presented by the president...."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19822-2003Jun21
"In this report we present the publicly available data that U.S. and UK
leaders chose to ignore in the pre-war debate.... The reason those now
searching for weapons are finding only traces, remnants, and precursors is
that previous policies of sanctions and UN weapons inspection and
destruction actually worked."
http://www.fourthfreedom.org/php/t-d-index.php?hinc=Unproven.hinc
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on Rumsfeld's new Office of Special
Plans. Populated with associates of the Project for the New American
Century, "the operation rivalled both the C.I.A. and the Pentagon's own
Defense Intelligence Agency...as President Bush's main source of
intelligence regarding Iraq's possible possession of weapons of mass
destruction and connection with Al Qaeda."
http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact
From The New Republic:
A former staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee admitted, "People
[kept] telling you first that things weren't right, weird things going on,
different people saying, 'There's so much pressure, you know, they keep
telling us, go back and find the right answer,' things like that."
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030630&s=ackermanjudis063003
------------------------------ 
IMPEACHMENT
John Dean, President Nixon's White House counsel, says the case for
impeachment would be easy legally, but impossible politically:
"To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based
on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of
national security intelligence data, if proven, could be 'a high crime'
under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of
federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute,
which renders it a felony 'to defraud the United States, or any agency
thereof in any manner or for any purpose.'"
http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/dean/20030606.html
A superb interview with Dean from BuzzFlash:
"Impeachment is a political proceeding, of quasi-legal nature. Republicans
are not going to impeach their president. To the contrary, it is very clear
they would defend him."
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/06/17_dean.html
------------------------------ 
BRITISH AND U.S. INQUIRIES
In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Tony Blair is under fire for his
dossier alleging Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. An inquiry
underway in the Parliament has heard devastating testimony from former
foreign secretary Robin Cook and former international development secretary
Clare Short, both of whom resigned over Blair's claim that Iraq was a "clear
and serious threat."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,987816,00.html
An Associated Press report on the Congressional inquiry into the Bush
administration's handling of pre-war intelligence.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0626-10.htm
------------------------------ 
ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS
From the Village Voice:
"New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman shrugged off WMD hype as a
necessary selling technique for Bush, arguing that we hit Hussein 'because
we could' and that what matters is whether we succeed at building a
'progressive Arab regime.' In other words, the ends justify the means."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0325/cotts.php
------------------------------ 
MISLEADER
As regular Bulletin readers may know, the Bulletin topics aren't necessarily
part of current MoveOn campaigns. The issue of Iraq war intelligence,
however, is the focus of MoveOn's "Misleader" advertising campaign. Sign the
petition to demand that Congress establish an independent, bipartisan
commission to investigate and hold the President and his officials
accountable if they manipulated or fabricated intelligence to justify taking
the country to war.
http://www.moveon.org/distortion/
------------------------------ 
CREDITS
Research team:
Leah Appet, Russ Juskalian, Kate Kressmann-Kehoe, Janelle Miau, Sarah
Parady, Kim Plofker, and Jesse Rhodes.
Editing team:
David Taub Bancroft, Nancy Evans, Judy Green, and Rita Weinstein.
------------------------------ 
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