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CIA says it hid Iraq sites from U.N. inspectors
NEW YORK TIMES ^ | 02/21/04

Posted on 02/21/2004 3:17:19 PM PST by optimistically_conservative

WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged that it did not provide the United Nations with information about 21 of the 105 sites in Iraq singled out by U.S. intelligence before the war as the most highly suspected of housing illicit weapons.

The acknowledgment, in a Jan. 20 letter to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), contradicts public statements before the war by top Bush administration officials. Both CIA Director George Tenet and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the United States had briefed U.N. inspectors on all of the sites identified as "high value and moderate value" in the weapons hunt.

The contradiction is significant because congressional opponents of the war were arguing a year ago that the U.N. inspectors should be given more time to complete their search before an invasion. The White House insisted that it was fully cooperating with the inspectors and providing the best information possible.

In a telephone interview on Friday, Levin said he now believed that Tenet had misled Congress, which he described as "totally unacceptable."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: anonymousletter; carllevin; cia; cialeak; hanoijohn; iaea; iraq; leak; levin; nondisclosure; prewarintelligence; tenet; un; unleaks; unsuckass
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Did a search, apologies if already posted.
1 posted on 02/21/2004 3:17:20 PM PST by optimistically_conservative
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To: optimistically_conservative
My memory may be going, but I seem to recall numerous press complaints at the time this took place that the CIA was refusing to give all its information to the UN. Why on earth should they, when the UN was working much more closely with Saddam than with us? And why pretend now that we weren't up front about refusing to give them the information?
2 posted on 02/21/2004 3:36:02 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: optimistically_conservative
Umm, doesn't this make every official that said the U.S. was "cooperating fully" with the U.N. a liar??
3 posted on 02/21/2004 3:37:51 PM PST by UncleJeff
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To: UncleJeff
Umm, doesn't this make every official that said the U.S. was "cooperating fully" with the U.N. a liar??

I'm hoping the Dems push this - we need to be more subservient to the UN line.

Iraq was responsible for coming clean. It was not our responsibility to "catch" them or the UN's.

I would hold back a few sites just to see if Iraq offered them to the UN rather than the UN demanding to see them based on our intel, then having the UN criticize us for what they did or did not find - or allowed Iraq to hide if they were spying on the UN inspectors.

4 posted on 02/21/2004 3:45:57 PM PST by optimistically_conservative (This tagline recently seen at Taglinus FreeRepublicus)
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To: UncleJeff
Umm, doesn't this make every official that said the U.S. was "cooperating fully" with the U.N. a liar??

Actually, it makes them all the smarter for it - unless of course you forget that even Blix was complaining that they would get to a site only to find it had just been cleaned out. We would have been absolute twits to give up all the info, especially as France and germany were stalling. In the end, we probably waited too long in trying to get UN approval because it gave The Butcher of Bagdad several extra months to do a disappearing act.

5 posted on 02/21/2004 4:09:08 PM PST by trebb (Ain't God good . . .)
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To: optimistically_conservative
I'd be more concerned if the CIA gave up all our secrets to the UN or the senate for that matter
6 posted on 02/21/2004 4:16:54 PM PST by paul51
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To: optimistically_conservative
Wait just a darn minute. The critics of the Bush Iraq policy can't have it both ways. Criticism #1: The CIA was totally wrong about WMD stockpiles at suspected sites since there were none, they were just hyping bad intel to promote war. All the sites were bogus. Criticism #2: The CIA failed to notify the UN of some bogus sites where CIA's bad intel indicated there might be WMD stockpiles but there weren't.
7 posted on 02/21/2004 4:32:28 PM PST by Gordian Blade
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To: optimistically_conservative
The UN representatives in Iraq -- both weapons inspectors and others -- have been as leaky as a child's beach sieve. The most recent demonstration was the murder of many UN officials in their HQ as a directg result of hiring Hussein functionaries on their security staff. If the CIA had told the UN everything they knew, they might as well have written it up in Arabic and sent it Federal Express to all of Hussein's palaces.

But, the staff of the New York Times being political bigots, they do not mention this aspect. When the CIA exercises plain, unvarnished common sense, as here, the defects of the UN must go unmentioned, so the usual condemnation of the Bush Administration can appear to be justified.

Did I miss anything?

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Don't delay. Do it now.

8 posted on 02/21/2004 4:33:51 PM PST by Congressman Billybob (www.ArmorforCongress.com Visit. Join. Help. Please.)
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To: Gordian Blade; Congressman Billybob
Let me just add with the recent disclosures of oil-for-food bribery and the WMD black market out of Europe through the Middle East, East Asia and Africa - how idiotic is it to complain we were not telling the corrupt governments and businesses everything we knew?

How hard do you think the Euroweenies and Russians were working to prevent any discovery of their recently sold weapons and "dual-use" equipment in Iraq by the UN or us? How hard do you think the UN and others profiting from the corrupt oil-for-food program and failed sanctions regime from having anyone find evidence of their profiteering?

Yeah, all that looting was just soooo spontaneous in all the right places? How many deals have we cut to not expose the countries and companies that are already listed on secret UN documents never disclosed outside of the permanent 5 of the Security Counsel?

How much have we found and leveraged to dismantle the WMD blackmarket and expose Saddam's lackys?
9 posted on 02/21/2004 5:18:01 PM PST by optimistically_conservative (This tagline recently seen at Taglinus FreeRepublicus)
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To: optimistically_conservative
Maybe this has something to do with why we didn't disclose every detail to the inspectors.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/835516/posts
10 posted on 02/21/2004 7:01:50 PM PST by fiftymegaton
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To: Mrs Zip
ping
11 posted on 02/21/2004 8:32:18 PM PST by zip
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To: UncleJeff
Do you remember the day that a terrified Iraqi climbed into a UN weapons inspectors car and they allowed Saddam's men to come and drag him off? Can you even imagine what they did to that man? Why on earth would we tell the UN everything? They were communicating directly with Saddam.
12 posted on 02/21/2004 8:43:18 PM PST by McGavin999 (Evil thrives when good men do nothing!)
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Comment #13 Removed by Moderator

To: Cicero
French inspectors were tipping Saddam's boys off like clockwork. Yet, here we are, and they go right on polluting the world, making trouble for us, while we rip ourselves apart during a presidential campaign. The RATS are probably cooperating with France and vice versa. You can bet the farm that Chirac and his pals will do all they can to make sure Kerry wins.
14 posted on 02/22/2004 8:00:09 AM PST by hershey
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To: zara; Cicero
zara......You sure are making to rounds... on the threads......BTW it's not nice to flame people in freepmail newbie.
15 posted on 02/22/2004 10:54:10 AM PST by Dog (Bin Laden your account to America is past due......time to pay up.)
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To: Cicero
My memory may be going, but I seem to recall numerous press complaints at the time this took place that the CIA was refusing to give all its information to the UN. Why on earth should they, when the UN was working much more closely with Saddam than with us? And why pretend now that we weren't up front about refusing to give them the information?

"Why pretend now ..." is to make GWB look bad. I don't have a clear recollection either, but I think you are correct. The CIA never asserted that it was giving up all of its information; but did assert that it was providing some information, and was "cooperating" with the UN inspectors. The NYT is doing the definition-morph, where "cooperation" necessarily includes giving up the crown jewels.

16 posted on 02/22/2004 11:01:57 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Dog
It's the same euro troll that's been banned 4 or 5 times already.
17 posted on 02/22/2004 11:03:00 AM PST by monkeywrench
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To: monkeywrench
I got my troll hunting hat on today..
18 posted on 02/22/2004 11:06:13 AM PST by Dog (Bin Laden your account to America is past due......time to pay up.)
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To: Cicero
Turns out this is an old complaint.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0214sabotaged.htm <-- Link

CIA "Sabotaged Inspections and Hid Weapons Details"

By Andrew Buncombe

Independent
February 14, 2003

Senior democrats have accused the CIA of sabotaging weapons inspections in Iraq by refusing to co-operate fully with the UN and withholding crucial information about Saddam Hussein's arsenal.

Led by Senator Carl Levin, the Democrats accused the CIA of making an assessment that the inspections were unlikely to be a success and then ensuring they would not be. They have accused the CIA director of lying about what information on the suspected location of weapons of mass destruction had been passed on.

19 posted on 02/22/2004 11:20:26 AM PST by Cboldt
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To: Dog; zara
I got a freepmail from zara, too. Apparently he doesn't know my degree was in geology. Pfui!
20 posted on 02/22/2004 11:21:14 AM PST by Miss Marple
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