Senate Intelligence Committee's Iraq Finding

Via Matt Yglesias. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report into the Bush administration pre-Iraq war claims tells us what has been reported in the media. The White House made shit up to sell the war.

* Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa'ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.

* Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.

* Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.

* Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community's uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.

* The Secretary of Defense's statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.

* The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

Congressional Democrats share the blame. The case was always weak and Democrats failed to ask difficult questions. Democrats did not want to look weak and national security. Bush was given carte blanche because of political spinelessness, on the part Democrats.

Update: the Phase Two report is online. Dana Perino argues that the White House wasn't getting proper information from the intelligence community. I like to hear her explanation of Dick Cheney's visit to the CIA.



Perino's argument that the White House doesn't lie about intelligence is another grand lie. Donald Rumsfeld, on Face the Nation that he never described Iraq as an "immediate threat." Thomas Friedman directly quotes Rumsfeld using those very words. Rumsfeld still wouldn't fess up. Lying is hardwired into the DNA of these people.