Officials Ask Why Iraq Details Surface Now

WASHINGTON - The CIA and members of Congress said they want to know how a presidential commission unearthed details on intelligence failures about Iraq's prewar weapons programs that previous investigations missed.

Of particular interest is information that emerged in last week's report about how doubts were handled regarding a leading source on Saddam Hussein's alleged mobile biological weapons labs — an Iraqi scientist who defected to Germany, code named "Curveball."

Porter Goss, who became CIA director last September, has instructed officials to determine what happened and why the details did not come to light earlier, said his spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise.

"It was an unhappy surprise to the director that his first understanding of this issue was when he first read" the commission's report, Millerwise said Wednesday.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., also acknowledged President Bush's intelligence commission had details that did not emerge during his committee's yearlong investigation into the Iraq assessments, released last July.

If Bush's intelligence commission learned "something obvious," Roberts said, "we want to make sure the intelligence community does fill in those gaps so we have a clear picture."

Other lawmakers are angrier. "As far as I am concerned, the CIA threw us a curve ball," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., also a member of the Intelligence Committee.

The White House, Congress and U.S. intelligence agencies have launched a number of investigations into the faulty prewar intelligence on the Iraq threat. The most definitive to date came last week from Bush's intelligence commission.

According to the report, CIA officials tried to tell the agency's top officials that Curveball was a suspected fabricator and may have been mentally unstable. The new information includes an alleged warning in a late-night phone call to the agency's former director, George Tenet.

Tenet and his top deputy have both released statements emphatically denying that they received such warnings. Tenet called it "deeply disturbing" that the information didn't get to him.

Levin wants Tenet to testify under oath. "I don't think the intelligence committee was given some of that detail on Curveball, but I think it should have been," Levin said.

"Tenet said he doesn't remember," Levin said. "Hey, these are life and death decisions. This is what we tell the world. That's not good enough. ... Where is the responsibility?"

U.S. intelligence agencies and the Bush administration have come under fire since 2001 for not sharing enough information with lawmakers who oversee some of the government's most sensitive intelligence activities. Some in Congress have been particularly concerned about U.S. detention policies and the botched Iraq intelligence that was used to justify the invasion.

When asked how the new investigation got more detail, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and a commission member, said that the panel conducted numerous long interviews. "We did not come up with that information early," McCain said of the information on Curveball.

Last week's report said the Defense Intelligence Agency circulated more than 100 reports from Curveball, with detailed information about mobile biological weapons labs in Iraq.

Curveball was working with German intelligence, and U.S. intelligence had limited access to him. The report said Curveball met once with a defense official and seemed to have a hangover.

The report said CIA officials contended that they tried to raise warnings about Curveball. One unnamed CIA division chief claims to have called Tenet at midnight the night before former Secretary of State Colin Powell gave his address to the United Nations, which provided the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq. The division chief recalled telling Tenet that foreign intelligence officials were concerned about Curveball's credibility.

In an unusual seven-page statement last week, Tenet said his "strong recollection" is that he did not speak with the division chief around midnight.

Tenet also said it was "stunning and deeply disturbing that this information, if true, was never brought forward to me by anyone" when the Iraq intelligence was scrutinized.

Yes, the Senate report was replete with "Curveball" references. This is the first time I heard he was working with Germany and we were getting it second hand.

As for us knowing he didn't have them, I doubt it. If the President thought Saddam didn't have them he would have stressed the other causus belli (causa belli? causi belli?) rather than WMD.

Out troops should have been protected against chemical weapons. They war those ungodly suits all the way to Baghdad.

"Read them. Be informed. Bitch slap the "Bush Lied" crowd with honest rebuttals.".
Thanks for the support. Well versed reply. Folks here should be able to know enough to smack down the minions who only watch L/MSM, who will be bitching that the POTUS is at fault.
If you don't read the report and already do not understand the whole picture or whereabouts, how can one effectively explain to anyone willing to at least listen that the administration and congress where mislead. Again as others have ably made note, we went to war with Iraq for a number of reasons. And in this we are not making half assed excuses for the POTUS.

Anyone else notice the roll of GERMANY in this...

Bump!!

Inside 9-11 What Really Happened

by The Reporters, Writers, and Editors of Der Spiegel Magazine

"This is the first time I heard he was working with Germany and we were getting it second hand."

Imagine how Collin must have felt after the fact. He stood in the UN security council and showed the world the pictures of the mobile bio weapon labs, etc., while the sleezy Germans and French pricks just sat there and quietly laughted. I can see why Tenet (a Clinton appointee) wanted out, so that he could "spend some quality time with his family". Yea right on. He probably has not sleeped since he left the Directorship. Now as indicated Carl Levin and other blow mouths will try to turn the tide against the POTUS. And the blood thirsty L/MSM commies will be right behind him, barking and knashing their teeth.

The silence from Europe on this has been deafening. When we said Saddam was still producing WMD no one objected. Tony Blair stood up at a G8 meeting and challenged the heads of all those countries saying that their intelligence agencies were telling them the same things. Again, no one disputed it.

When the WMD turned up missing, those countries were in no position to complain since they had believed the same things and agreed with them. Thank goodness. Too bad the Democrats decided not to take that approach. Their position is that when BJ Clinton and every Democrat Senator said Saddam had WMD it was true but when President Bush said the same thing it was a lie.

One thing in the WMD report that stood out was how the CIA took the political view. At the UN, Saddam had to prove he disarmed. We didn't have to prove he still had them. The CIA was faulted for approaching the problem the same way. They were assumed to have the weapons as the default case.

Another was the admission in the report that, if anyone looked at all the information, especially Saddam's behavior, the committee doubted anyone would have concluded he had secretly, unilaterally disarmed. They did criticize the CIA for not being able to at least imagine that scenario.

To me the net of all this is Saddam was waving a gun at us and we weren't willing to bet it had blanks.

To me the net of all this is Saddam was waving a gun at us and we weren't willing to bet it had blanks."

All you wrote surely is second by many of us at FreeRep. I do hope folks have downloaded the report and will take the time to at least wade through chapter one. Clearly as you indicate, not only the CIA but the other key agencies, mostly had no solid information to go on to indicate that Saddam was mostly bluffing it. To me, it not an excuse by the agencies in question based on how they where set up to gather/analyis the various forms of data, to in effect, admit they simply did not have a real picture as to what Iraq had been up to after the first Golf War. To much had to be assumed, based on old data and similiar sentiments of most EU nation's Intellegience orgs. Of course Americans and most Europe will never have a clue as how all where mislead and just shrug it off. It is to easy to blame the US for being the only ones at fault.
Like you said. The POTUS was not willing to bet Saddam cleaned up his act. Saddam gave us no indications they stopped WMD development and productions in almost all it's various forms. And we did not have reliable HUMINT to confirm the fact. So bingo his statue came a tumbling down.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.