CIA Had Fix on Hussein: Intelligence Revealed 'Target of Opportunity'

Washington Post ^ | March 20, 2003 | Barton Gellman and Dana Priest

[John H K]

Shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday, Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet offered President Bush the prospect -- improbable to the point of fantasy, yet suddenly at hand -- that the war against Iraq might be transformed with its opening shots. The CIA, Tenet said, believed it had a fix on President Saddam Hussein.

[John H K]

Most detailed info yet....

[happygrl]

Let's hope it hit one of them on the top five list.

[bybybill]

Whether we got Saddammnnn or not, what an op! To be able to react that fast, at those distances, and put that much ordidance on target, WOW

[scott7278]

Great post -- our technology is simply amazing. I hope that we killed him, and that their military gives up without one civilian or American life lost.

Can you imagine the horror of the Left if that happened?

[calljack]

That would catapult Bush to 95% popularity. I wonder what it would do to oil prices? $20 per barrel maybe. Not to mention end the war without ANY casulties. Unimaginable how good that woul be for our side. Every single one of the pukes on the other side would have to eat dirt.

[Dahoser]

Can you imagine the horror of the Left if that happened?

They'd demand a recount of the BDA...but only in 4 provinces of Iraq.

[Quix]

YEA TEAM!

[Beck_isright]

Don't worry, Schumer and Hitlery will cut their funding back again until they need the CIA to spy on the GOP again.

[scott7278]

I'm not going to get too excited yet, with the Republican Guard and all, but man, do I love this country!

[Boundless]

> Can you imagine the horror of the Left if that happened?

No doubt why Mr.Bill didn't do the same to Osama when he had
the chance.

My question is: why are we hearing these details?

Is the White House, DOD and CIA convinced that we'll have
Iraq soon enough that we can now risk our sources and
methods for what appears to be just PR?

Sure, if we only bombed ONE target in Baghdad, and it happened
to be a Saddam safe-house, they can make certain inferences,
but why confirm their suspicions?

[zarf]

Baghdad must be flooded with Sunni operatives.

[fatima]

Wow,If this is true.

[scott7278]

"No doubt why Mr.Bill didn't do the same to Osama when he had the chance."

What say you, Mr. Bill and Buddy?

Seriously, I don't know why this leaked out.

[MattAMiller]

Please oh please oh please. Would this be awesome or what? Could you imagine our troops just rolling in to seize WMDs and set up a new government? It couldn't get any better.

[DTA]

>>>>>>For the next three hours, Bush and his senior national security advisers tore up the carefully orchestrated schedule of violence that the U.S. Central Command had honed for months

Is this some kind of joke or what? If true, will Tenet resign after this blunder?

[craig_eddy]

How's that? Come again? I'm not sure what you're talking about here. "Blunder"??

[leadpenny]

Pretty close to that now. Watching BBC via C-SPAN and prices are in the low 20's. Wasn't it around $35 per barrel a few weeks ago?

[Diver Dave]

Is this some kind of joke or what? If true, will Tenet resign after this blunder?

Note that Walter Pincus is one of the WP authors of this piece and his fingerprints are all over that paragraph. ie. schedule of violence...

Also note that none of these multi-million dollar cruise missiles hit an aspirin factory, a Chinese embassy or a camel's butt. :)

[Teetop]

Headlines next week;

"Dasshole introduces legislation to gut CIA"

[CharacterCounts]

Sure, if we only bombed ONE target in Baghdad, and it happened to be a Saddam safe-house, they can make certain inferences, but why confirm their suspicions?

To encourage surrender and capitulation.