CIA warned Bush of no weapons in Iraq: retired official (ZOT!!! Retread too dim to change m/o.)

AFP ^

[Andy5000]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency warned US President George W. Bush before the Iraq war that it had reliable information the government of Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, a retired CIA operative disclosed.

[Mr. Silverback]

Not to be pedantic, but a fact can't be ignorant. Facts are concepts, not beings.

[Mr. Silverback]

Don't argue with an idiot. He drags you down to his level and then beats you with vast experience. :-)

[Watery Tart]

To: Andy5000

adds to earlier accusations that the Bush administration used intelligence selectively

Well, duh! All decision makers, from the guy who runs the local hardware store, all the way up to the President of The United States use information selectively. If all of the information is consistent, and paints the same picture, there won't be much for the decision maker to do. His job is to take intelligence that sometimes conflicts with other intelligence, and, by golly, select the more credible evidence and then act accordingly.

Far be it from the drive-by media to note that the intelligence which Bush did select, which indicated that Saddam had WMDs, was the same evidence that most of the world had, and which virtually everyone, including Bill Clinton, John Kerry and the rest of the democrat hierarchy, believed.

Another point, which is, to me, the most sorely-neglected fact relating to the run-up to the war, is that the onus was on Saddam to prove that he had disposed of the WMDs which he previously admitted that he had (some of which he had used on the Kurds, on the marsh Arabs, and on Iran.) He never produced a satisfactory accounting of what he had done with these weapons. The only safe course for the world to pursue was to believe he still had them, which the world did believe. The fact that only The United States and a few true allies had the guts to act on this does not detract from the fact that Saddam was not in compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441. That the French, Russians, and most of the world (including many top U.N. officials) were enjoying huge monetary benefits from the fraud-ridden Oil for Food program does not mean that Bush, Blair, et al were in the wrong. Au contraire.

38 posted on 04/22/2006 9:14:28 AM CDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)

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What you said. It needs to be repeated.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

adds to earlier accusations that the Bush administration used intelligence selectively

Well, duh! All decision makers, from the guy who runs the local hardware store, all the way up to the President of The United States use information selectively. If all of the information is consistent, and paints the same picture, there won't be much for the decision maker to do. His job is to take intelligence that sometimes conflicts with other intelligence, and, by golly, select the more credible evidence and then act accordingly.

Far be it from the drive-by media to note that the intelligence which Bush did select, which indicated that Saddam had WMDs, was the same evidence that most of the world had, and which virtually everyone, including Bill Clinton, John Kerry and the rest of the democrat hierarchy, believed.

Another point, which is, to me, the most sorely-neglected fact relating to the run-up to the war, is that the onus was on Saddam to prove that he had disposed of the WMDs which he previously admitted that he had (some of which he had used on the Kurds, on the marsh Arabs, and on Iran.) He never produced a satisfactory accounting of what he had done with these weapons. The only safe course for the world to pursue was to believe he still had them, which the world did believe. The fact that only The United States and a few true allies had the guts to act on this does not detract from the fact that Saddam was not in compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441. That the French, Russians, and most of the world (including many top U.N. officials) were enjoying huge monetary benefits from the fraud-ridden Oil for Food program does not mean that Bush, Blair, et al were in the wrong. Au contraire.

[Paisan]

I had to check your profile. Rump Swabs, as any Bay Stater knows, is a phrase one picks up by listening regularly to Howie Carr...

No point. Just an observation.

[OESY]

This agent does not boost public confidence that the CIA, as then configured,
ever knew how to play Saddam's shell game. Did Saddam's air force
never exist because it was later found buried in the Iraqi desert?

[attiladhun2]

The same CIA claimed "100,000 dead Albanian Kosovars", the same CIA claimed an encampment of sheepherders in Afghanistan was an Al Qaeda training camp, the same CIA claimed an aspirin factory in Kartoum was a chemical weapons plant, etc. I think the CIA has about as much credibility as the MSM--iow, zilch.

[attiladhun2]

Complete Ignoramus A-holes.