CIA director disputes Cheney assertions on Iraq

Real Cities ^ | 3/9/04 | Jonathan S. Landay

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

CIA Director George Tenet on Tuesday rejected recent assertions by Vice President Dick Cheney that Iraq cooperated with the al-Qaida terrorist network and that the administration had proof of an illicit Iraqi biological warfare program.

Tenet's comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee are likely to fuel friction between the White House and intelligence agencies over the failure so far to find any of the banned weapons stockpiles that President Bush, in justifying his case for war, charged Saddam Hussein with concealing.

Tenet at first appeared to defend the administration, saying that he didn't believe the White House misrepresented intelligence provided by the CIA.

The administration's statements, he said, reflected a prewar intelligence consensus that Saddam had stockpiled chemical and biological weapons and was pursuing nuclear bombs.

But under sharp questioning by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Tenet reversed himself, saying there had been instances when he had warned administration officials that they were misstating the threat posed by Iraq.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you what my interaction was ... and what I did and didn't do, except that you have to have confidence to know that when I believed that somebody was misconstruing intelligence, I said something about it," Tenet said. "I don't stand up publicly and do it."

Tenet admitted to Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's senior Democrat, that he had told Cheney that the vice president was wrong in saying that two truck trailers recovered in Iraq were "conclusive evidence" that Saddam had a biological weapons program.

Cheney made the assertion in a Jan. 22 interview with National Public Radio.

Tenet said that U.S. intelligence agencies still disagree on the purpose of the trailers. Some analysts believe they were mobile biological-weapons facilities; others think they may have been for making hydrogen gas for weather balloons.

Levin also questioned Tenet about a Jan. 9 interview with the Rocky Mountain News, in which Cheney cited a November article in the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, as "the best source of information" on cooperation between Saddam and al-Qaida.

The article was based on a leaked top-secret memorandum. It purportedly set out evidence, compiled by a special Pentagon intelligence cell, that Saddam was in league with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. It was written by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, the third-highest Pentagon official and a key proponent of the war.

"Did the CIA agree with the contents of the Feith document?" asked Levin.

"Senator, we did not clear the document," replied Tenet. "We did not agree with the way the data was characterized in that document."

Tenet, who pointed out that the Pentagon, too, had disavowed the document, said he learned of the article Monday night, and he planned to speak with Cheney about the CIA's view of the Feith document.

In building the case for war, Bush, Cheney and other top officials relied in part on assessments by the CIA and other agencies. But they concealed disputes and dissents over Iraq's weapons programs and links to terrorists that were raging among analysts, U.S. diplomats and military officials.

They also used exaggerated and fabricated information from defectors and former Iraqi exile groups that was fed directly into Cheney's office and the Pentagon. Those groups included the Iraqi National Congress, whose leader, Ahmad Chalabi, was close to hawks around Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and the White House, but who was distrusted by the CIA and the State Department.

Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the military's main intelligence arm, said that "some" information provided by defectors had checked out, but that they also gave material that was "fabricated or embellished."

Bush has appointed a bipartisan commission to investigate what the CIA and other intelligence agencies knew about prewar Iraq, but wouldn't permit the commission to examine how intelligence was used by the White House and the Pentagon. Information from Iraqi defectors and exile groups, who contended that Saddam was a great threat, was also ruled off-limits.

Politics pervaded Tuesday's hearing. Democrats sought to prove that Bush and his top aides overstated prewar intelligence assessments of the threat posed by Saddam. Republicans insisted that the administration's arguments reflected the CIA's judgment, the views of most lawmakers and those of the former Clinton administration.

"Members of this committee, members of the Senate, as well as past and present administrations reached the same conclusions: Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the panel chairman.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the Democratic presidential candidate, and other critics are linking the issue to Bush's credibility as the election campaign heats up and the toll of dead and injured U.S. soldiers rises.

[MJY1288]

"Tenet said that U.S. intelligence agencies still disagree on the purpose of the trailers. Some analysts believe they were mobile biological-weapons facilities; others think they may have been for making hydrogen gas for weather balloons."

So why is Cheney automatically wrong, Cheney can draw his own conclusions just as those who disagree with him. Who's to say who's correct, it's not yet known what they were for as of right now

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The swimmer just accused the administration of distorting intelligence which HE HAS NEVER SEEN. Same old game, lie now, get page 1 coverage for as long as possible, and eventually drop it after the public is brainwashed.

[Shermy]

The administration's statements, he said, reflected a prewar intelligence consensus that Saddam had stockpiled chemical and biological weapons and was pursuing nuclear bombs.

But under sharp questioning by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Tenet reversed himself, saying there had been instances when he had warned administration officials that they were misstating the threat posed by Iraq.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you what my interaction was ... and what I did and didn't do, except that you have to have confidence to know that when I believed that somebody was misconstruing intelligence, I said something about it," Tenet said. "I don't stand up publicly and do it."

1. There was no reversal, the reporter is being mischievious. The existence or not of weapons or their precursors is different than the bureaucratic legalistic wrangling of "threat" and how to define the threat. As to what the dispute about "threat" was, we don't know, and aren't told. The "imminent" debate? If someone "misconstrued" intelligence...so what? Were they corrected? Did others disagree? Did they say it in public? What exactly, if anything, does Tenet disagree with that was said publicly? All we have here is the post-war two mobile labs claim and the "characterization" of a report.

"In building the case for war, Bush, Cheney and other top officials relied in part on assessments by the CIA and other agencies. But they concealed disputes and dissents over Iraq's weapons programs and links to terrorists that were raging among analysts, U.S. diplomats and military officials."

Couldn't have been written bette by teh DNC itself. Every government operation has diverse opinions behind it, against it, in the middle. How was this concealed? We were treated to it daily.

It's going to be a long election...

[Just mythoughts]

Seems to me what the missing question from the old blowhard is----


Mr. Tenant do you know all the "INTEL" that the President has?

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

How many nations have agreed to the existence of WMD? How many on the left? Remember a reporter defending Clinton by saying his attacks MAY HAVE eliminated SOME of the WMD? And again, the swimmer is an idiot.

[moni kerr]

Tenet, who pointed out that the Pentagon, too, had disavowed the document, said he learned of the article Monday night, and he planned to speak with Cheney about the CIA's view of the Feith document.

Not exactly disavowed.

News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.

A letter was sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Oct. 27, 2003, from Douglas J. Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, in response to follow-up questions from his July 10 testimony. One of the questions posed by the committee asked the department to provide the reports from the intelligence community to which he referred in his testimony before the committee. These reports dealt with the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.

The letter to the committee included a classified annex containing a list and description of the requested reports, so that the committee could obtain the reports from the relevant members of the intelligence community.

The items listed in the classified annex were either raw reports or products of the CIA, the National Security Agency or, in one case, the Defense Intelligence Agency. The provision of the classified annex to the Intelligence Committee was cleared by other agencies and done with the permission of the intelligence community. The selection of the documents was made by DoD to respond to the committee’s question. The classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, and it drew no conclusions.

Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2003/nr20031115-0642.html

[marron]

Part of this is artful writing on the part of the newsman. Part of it, though, was a softspoken but public betrayal of the president by Tenet.

Bush inherited him from Clinton, and has loyally stood by him despite everything. Its too late to do anything about him until after the election, but I would be very disappointed if Tenet survived in office 10 minutes after the polls close in November. He is a big part of the problem, and he is a snake.

Bush keeps making the mistake of thinking that if he is loyal to his enemies, they will in the end do the right thing. Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

If intelligence was leaked, distorted, and used to justify attacks on Iraq and the left has them, why are they bitching for an investigation? THEY HAVE the damn reports! Why not make copies for the Times... so they can front page this material for the public?

[hchutch]

Of course, the media won't portray it that way.

[JohnGalt]

It remains to be seen whether Cheney was duped by information given to him by someone like Chalabi or whether he was a willing duper.

[aShepard]

.....Its too late to do anything about him until after the election.....

Perhaps someone should whisper in Tenet's ear; "Remember Vince Foster, remember Ron Brown, remember Mary Mahoney, remember Jim McDougall"