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.

[kabar]

This has been going on for some time. I dug this November 30, 2005 article up from The Daily Standard: Leaking At All Costs: What the CIA is willing to do to hurt the Bush administration.

"THE CIA'S WAR against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years. It is, perhaps, the agency's most successful covert action of recent times. The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the administration by former Democratic officeholders. The agency allowed an employee, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book containing classified information, as long as, in Scheuer's words, "the book was being used to bash the president." However, the agency's preferred weapon has been the leak. In one leak after another, generally to the New York Times or the Washington Post, CIA officials have sought to undermine America's foreign policy. Usually this is done by leaking reports or memos critical of administration policies or skeptical of their prospects. Through it all, our principal news outlets, which share the agency's agenda and profit from its torrent of leaks, have maintained a discreet silence about what should be a major scandal."

[EDINVA]

"The Clintonistas in the CIA are smarting a bit from yesterday's firing ..."

I think they have broken into a sweat .. McCarthy was only the first and there will be more to come.

[Calpernia]

60 minutes? Don't hold your breath.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1320747/posts
George Soros, Media Connections - Bump List


http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/03/110687.shtml

Indymedia.org team in merger talks with CBS/Viacom
George Soros, CEO of Indymedia.org ltd has begun merger talks with the CBS/Viacom News Network to help bring together the Vibrant Staff of the Independant News Network with the resources and Global Consumer Reach of the CBS news network. This follows a meeting of the IMC Board of Directors and key Indymedia shareholders where it was decided that Indymedia needed to branch out from its traditional Liberal readership demographic to encompass more mainstream news interests and readerships....

http://sf.indymedia.org/uploads/cbs60minskullandbones.wmv

Note on that URL, IndyMedia (soros) Skull and Bones, CBS/Indy merger.

I have PDFs downloaded too of IndyMedia sharing reporters with CBS.

[LibLieSlayer]

ONE BIG PROBLEM... 9/11 Commission and its 25lb "book of facts". Lying liar from the party of satan!

GEORGE TENET: "It's a "slam-dunk" Mr. President"! Don't you hate it when documented History gets in the way of a SEE-BS fabrication!?

LLS

[Calpernia]

Actually, that would hijack this thread.

I didn't want to do that.

But it is more of a simple answer of what type. There were labs and scientists involved IN the NJ area.

Alamo Girl has a thread up.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/572763/posts

[Calpernia]

::I should be slapped for not adding the Swift Boat Vets from the top of my head::

[LibLieSlayer]

GEORGE TENET: "WMD IS A SLAM-DUNK MR. PRESIDENT"!

Does this ex-CIA employee dispute his then boss??? If so, how and why? Where is his proof???

LLS

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Anything Bill Clinton touched...he perverted!!

Perhaps Monica's daddy is proud that every time his name is mentioned.....people think of something else.

[kylaka]

How is it the CIA knew, but Saddam's generals, every elected democrat in the nation, and the rest of the civilized world didn't know?

[huck von finn]

That would be my guess too.

[Mo1]

But the operative, Tyler Drumheller, said top White House officials simply brushed off the warning, saying they were "no longer interested" in intelligence and that the policy toward Iraq had been already set.

The disclosure, made in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" program due to be broadcast late Sunday, adds to earlier accusations that the Bush administration used intelligence selectively as it built its case for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam's regime.

Gee ... I wonder .. will CBS also discuss the documents from Iraq that are being translated??

And will they discuss Mary McCarthy from the CIA who was just fired???

[softengine]

While I'm not entirely pleased with how our efforts to police the world are going, nor where they are going, I have to say placing the entire share of blame on Pres Bush's plate is wrong and simpleminded.

[carl in alaska]

IIRC, George Tenet's statement when he left the CIA completely contradicts this cBS story. My recollection is that Tenet said something like:

Some of our intelligence about Iraqi WMD was correct and some of it was incorrect. There were a lot of gray areas and the truth lies somewhere in the middle ground.

That tells me the CIA was correct about some of the WMD programs, and the main reason we didn't find much WMD was because 95% of the WMD was shipped out of Iraq before the war. When you consider the extreme lethality of some of the chemical weapons that Iraq was capable of producing, I think the Russians actually did us a big favor by helping to move those weapons to Syria and elsewhere. I'd like to see a named source by cBS on this one. This story is questionable.

[kabar]

No, the British claimed that Iraq had shown an interest in buying uranium, that's all that Bush put forth. Facts are dangerous things.

Correct. Tenet, intentionally or unintentionally, compounded the problem with his July 11, 2003 Press release that was intended to "counter" Wilson's NYT article.

Tenet referred to the statement in the STOTU address by stating that, "These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President." "The background above makes it even more troubling that the 16 words eventually made it into the State of the Union speech. This was a mistake."

The President was factually correct and the British to this day stand behind their assessment. Tenet had no business questioning whether the statement should have been left in the address. He tried to nuance the issue by saying,

"Some of the language was changed. From what we know now, Agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct - i.e. that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa. This should not have been the test for clearing a Presidential address. This did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for Presidential speeches, and should have ensured that it was removed.

I don't know if Bush cleared this press release, but it was a mistake. Tenet, a long time Dem staffer, may have set a trap for Bush.

[carl in alaska]

Do you think cBS actually has a source for this story, or do you think they manufactured this story?

[ohioWfan]

As a NON conspiracy type person, I've never seen such a concerted CONSPIRACY to destroy a President.

Conclusion.........HE'S DOING A GREAT JOB AT ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION.

[kabar]

The WMD equation was merely one of more then a dozen reasons Saddam needed to be removed.

That is an obvious fact. One has only to look at the Text of Joint Resolution On Iraq Passed By The United States Congress on October 11, 2002. The Resolution passed 296-133 by the House of Representatives and 77-23 by the Senate on October 10 and 11, 2002. There were 24 reasons given on why force was authorized. Many had nothing to do with WMD.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm?? How can that be .. wasn't it George Tenant who said, "it's a slam dunk" ..??

So if the HEAD OF THE CIA was saying that .. then Bush WAS NOT WARNED THERE WERE NO WMD - and besides .. THERE WAS WMD! - AND AT LEAST 15 OTHER INTEL AGENCIES HAD THE SAME INFO WE DID!

"The Generals" are just trying to pass the buck because they don't want to be held responsible for the mess we're in now - the mess that Rumsfeld and Bush are trying to clean up.

[Jonah Johansen]

I think 60 minutes now into a every other week 'Bush bashing story' schedule. Every week would be a bit too obvious.

This really has become the standard M.O.
Publish an anti-Bush book, that Sunday appear on 60 minutes where your allegations go unchallenged, have the AP do a feature on you an your book and run it in all the local papers, have all the liberal columnists write about your accusations as if they were established fact, Have the White House reporter, report the charges as new news, the next day attack any response from the White House. Have the author appear on all the morning shows during the week, and face Katy Couric's softballs. Have Borders and Barnes and Noble stack hundreds of copies of your book at the entrance to their stores, then CNN and MSNBC laudatory segments and interviews, and finally appear on Meet the Press.

[CyberAnt]

That's what happens when liberals are denied power. They get nasty .. because .. after all .. they are the chosen class to rule us peons doncha know!

It really isn't Bush they hate .. THEY HATE HIM BECAUSE HE "STOLE" THEIR POWER.