House intelligence chief berates Negroponte on WMD (some one being mis-under-estimated AGAIN)

Reuters ^ | 29 Jun 2006

[IrishMike]

The chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee accused U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte's office on Thursday of downplaying the significance of chemical weapons finds in Iraq.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, said in a letter to Negroponte that intelligence officials at a June 21 press briefing organized by his office misled journalists about the significance of 500 munitions containing mustard and sarin nerve agents discovered since May 2004.

Intelligence officials at the briefing told journalists the weapons predated the 1991 Gulf War, were too degraded to be used as originally intended and posed no threat to U.S. forces deployed in the region during the run-up to the 2003 invasion.

"I am very disappointed by the inaccurate, incomplete, and occasionally misleading comments made by the briefers," Hoekstra said in the letter, a copy of which was released by his office.

"Because this call was organized by your office, I assume that you authorized and were familiar with its content. I would appreciate an explanation and correction of these inaccurate and misleading assertions," he told the national intelligence director.

Negroponte's office was not immediately available for comment.

[IrishMike]

There is a whole lot more to this than meets the eye.

[austinaero]

Hey, maybe the administration is luring someone into bringing up the subject of "downplaying" so even MORE cards can be revealed. I'd love to see that!

[IrishMike]

We're thinking alike.

[W04Man]

Duh! "Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have described the munitions as "weapons of mass destruction," but say the gravest danger they pose would be to U.S. troops in Iraq and Iraqi nationals, if obtained by insurgents."

So ONLY our TROOPS have to worry about them..... nice.... thanks for supporting our troops. Now, what if one gets out of country and finds it's way to NYC or Wash DC subways? I guess that's no problem either.....

Duh!

[roses of sharon]

Very curious since Negroponte and Hoekstra are serious men.

It could be something interesting, or most likely, its the Admin not wanting to play tit-for-tat with the CIA "sources" anymore, because the President will always lose that battle.

The propaganda value for the enemy in both theaters and their liberal comrades here at home is to great.

[LSUfan]

Negroponte is not a good guy and is not particularly loyal to the president. His hand-picked CIA head, General Hayden, basically laid the president out in testimony before the Senate...and was NOT justified by the facts in doing so...

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=papers&code=06-F_13

[marron]

My impression from all that is that the CIA mutiny is still on.

[elhombrelibre]

There is indeed, IrishMike. The last thing the Democrats want, and maybe some in the Intel community, is a full release of what's been found, what the lab reports show, how it was concealed, or how it was found. But those who pooh-poohed these findings are very wrong.

[IrishMike]

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