"Dead Wrong?" I Doubt It

Bizblogger ^ | 04/01/05 | Richie Rich

[Richie Rich]

James Robbins in the National Review explains the media's field day with one phrase from the 600-page report on U.S. intelligence. Although the report was wide-ranging and discussed many important intelligence issues, including an underestimation of al Qaeda's WMD program and a failure to note how strongly bin Laden wanted to acquire and use radiological weapons, the media focused solely on the words "dead wrong," in regards to Iraq's WMD intelligence.

It is pretty clear to everyone that for decades now, our intelligence capabilities have been slowly destroyed, a process which only accelerated during the Reno-Deutch-Gorelick-Berger years of the Clinton Administration. Heck, when the NSA chief can't even follow the security procedures of the National Archives, how can he be expected to help with the security of a whole country? Yet somehow all this is painted as Bush's failure.

As Robbins points out, the report doesn't answer the most important questions - the millions of dollars spent on WMD programs and the widespread deception of inspectors. As the Duelfer report states,

Between 1996 and 2002, the overall MIC [Iraq's Military Industrialization Commission] budget increased over forty-fold from ID 15.5 billion to ID 700 billion. By 2003 it had grown to ID 1 trillion. MIC's hard currency allocations in 2002 amounted to approximately $364 million. MIC sponsorship of technical research projects at Iraqi universities skyrocketed from about 40 projects in 1997 to 3,200 in 2002. MIC workforce expanded by fifty percent in three years, from 42,000 employees in 1999 to 63,000 in 2002...

[maestro]

Exactly,.....Where are those Three (3) gone MISSING 'SH' MYSTERY CARGO SHIPS?

/tonnage gone