Posted on 03/20/2006 6:13:32 PM PST by AZRepublican
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the period before the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein's foreign minister Naji Sabri, was a secret paid source of the CIA, "NBC Nightly News" reported on Monday.
Citing unnamed current and former U.S. intelligence officials, NBC said Sabri provided details of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be more accurate than CIA estimates.
Intelligence sources said Sabri was paid more than $100,000 through an intermediary in a September 2002 deal brokered by the French, NBC reported.
Sabri may have thought he was working with the French, but some U.S. intelligence officials believe he knew it was the CIA, NBC said.
The CIA questioned Sabri through a go-between about Saddam's WMD program, the report said.
According to the intelligence sources, Sabri indicated that Saddam had no significant weapons program and that while the deposed Iraqi leader desperately wanted a nuclear bomb it would have taken more time for him to build one than the CIA's several-months-to-a-year estimate, NBC reported.
Both the CIA and Sabri said Saddam had stockpiled chemical weapons, but both were wrong, NBC said.
WMD were the main justification for President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq three years ago, but no such weapons have been found.
Citing intelligence sources, NBC said the CIA's brief relations with Sabri ended after he refused to defect to the United States. The agency had been hoping for a public relations coup, the network said.
Sabri was not named among the former senior Iraqi officials on the U.S. most-wanted list of 55 Iraqi fugitives.
NBC said it found Sabri teaching at a university in the Middle East, but was not revealing his location for security reasons.
Sabri declined to be interviewed or to comment as did the CIA, NBC said, adding that the agency also would not say why it did not listen to Sabri's warnings.
A CIA representative had no comment on the report.
What are we to make of this?
Unnamed current and former sorces- but of course. Are there any other kind?
If Sabri were an American, you can damn well bet NBC would give up his location.
What do you think? Bush knew, therefore he lied.
Sounds to me like the Big Media is bracing for the upcoming battle between what is factual and what is not (read: Right and Left, respectively), by affirming the barely-able-to-sustain lies that have been spouted all over the place.
And they know this how??
"Sabri provided details of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be more accurate than CIA estimates."
"Sabri indicated that Saddam had no significant weapons program and that while the deposed Iraqi leader desperately wanted a nuclear bomb it would have taken more time for him to build one than the CIA's several-months-to-a-year estimate, NBC reported."
"Both the CIA and Sabri said Saddam had stockpiled chemical weapons, but both were wrong, NBC said."
"Sabri declined to be interviewed or to comment as did the CIA, NBC said, adding that the agency also would not say why it did not listen to Sabri's warnings."
Uh, the warnings about him stockpiling chemical weapons or the warnings that Saddam desperately wanted a nuclear bomb?
No doubt they have a real forged memo somewhere. Maybe Dan Rather is working for them
Porter Goss probably wants to commit suicide working at that hack organization.
We're amatuers. Better wait on the pro's, like Chrissy Matthews to telll us what this means.
Maybe the newsmedia know the Bush Administration is getting ready for the biggest rope-a-dope in political history.
Maybe some of our former enemies are getting ready to give it up.
Or pull a Custer...
Blan Dather: "Mary, get in here with those files"
I hope for his sake that he's well hidden and highly protected.
Everyone know NBC are the experts on WMD /sarc
Sabri said there were chemical weapons...
I believe him...
But, because of the "let's play footsie with the UN" crowd, Sabri and Saddam had plenty of time to move them..
Bottom line, Bush did not lie...this is what Sabri and the CIA told him..
Wasn't there a general who very recently wrote a book?
Tariq Aziz knows all.
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