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Senate Report Shows Intel Debunked Al Qaeda-Iraq Link Before Bush's Speech
Buried deep in the new Senate intel report is evidence that yet another pre-war Bush administration claim about Iraq had been discredited within the intelligence community, months before the president used the claim publicly as an argument for war.
In October 2002, a few weeks before Congress voted to authorize the Iraq invasion, Bush told a crowd in Cincinnati: "We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gasses."
Problem is, it wasn't true. More importantly, a lot of people at the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency knew it probably wasn't true. That's one of the interesting revelations inside the Senate's recent 171-page Phase II report on whether White House statements were backed up by prewar intelligence.
Once again, it's important to make the distinction between good-faith flaws in prewar intelligence and evidence that the public was misled by a bogus case for war. (A lot of people have tried hard to make that a very hazy distinction in recent years)
As Newsweek noted, the Senate report reveals that: "The intelligence reports on chemical and biological weapons training came primarily from the interrogation of al Qaeda detainee Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi."
But al-Libi had been widely discredited months before the president made that remark -- by both the CIA as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency.
From page 65 and 66 of Senate report:
A February 22, 2002 DIA Defense Intelligence Terrorism Summary noted that Ibn al-Shaykh [al-Libi] "lacks specific details on the Iraq's involvement, the [Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Weapons] materials associated with the assistance and the location where the training occurred. It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers. Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to debriefers that he knows will retain their interest. Saddam's regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary movements. Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a group it cannot control.DIA reiterated some of these points in additional reports. On August 7, 2002, the CIA reported on al-Libi's credibility. The Summary of the report stated that questions persist about [al-Libi's] forthrightness and truthfulness" and later elaborating "in some instances, however, he seems to have fabricated information. Perhaps in an attempt to exaggerate his own importance, Ibn al-Shaykh claims to be a member of al-AQa'ida's Shura Council, a claim not corroborated by other intelligence reporting.
(emphasis added)
Intel officials long ago stopped trying to defend al-Libi as a source. He recanted in January 2004, leading the CIA to order all prior intelligence suggesting Iraq trained al Qaeda personnel in chemical and biological warfare "recalled and re-issued" in February 2004.
But the fact the intelligence community knew al-Libi was unreliable from early to mid-2002 casts many official statements in a new light. For example, al-Libi has been reported as a primary source for Colin Powell's claim that al-Qaeda received chemical or biological weapons training from Iraq when he addressed the United Nations in early 2003. Powell did not use his name, but referred to al-Libi as a "senior Al Qaeda terrorist" who ran a training camp in Afghanistan.
(U.S. forces captured al-Libi in Afghanistan in 2001 and flew him to Egypt, where he provided the false Iraq-al-Qaeda link while undergoing harsh interrogation.)
Also, we know that Bush's speech was vetted because that was the same speech on Oct. 7, 2002, that CIA director George Tenet personally called the president about and urged him not to make mention of Iraq's alleged effort to obtain uranium from Niger because intelligence sources did not support that claim.
Josh
Zachary
"...that CIA director George Tenant personally called the president about and urged him not to make mention of Iraq's alleged effort to obtain...."
That would be George TENET not Tenant!
June 16, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Alguien..
There's a "send comments and news tips" link in the upper right hand corner that will load up an email for you to send to the TPM crew with, among other things we don't need to read on the threads, typos, errors and gaffes you spot.
They are very responsive about correcting their errors, so please, give us all an editorial break and send your corrections via the internet, not here on the pulic forum.
I'm just a reader, not any sort of staffer, and they have always fixed anything I pointed out, and thanked me for the heads-up every time.
June 17, 2008 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
The report that just keeps giving and giving. Yet again Cheney/Bush are shown to be liars, responsible for killing and maiming countless human beings, and our Congress will do nothing! Something else the signers of the Constitution missed; how to deal with criminal malfeasance by most of our Congress. Voting them from office isn’t the answer.
June 16, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing but nothing was going to keep George and Dick from playing war in Iraq. Certainly, the truth wasn't going to get in their way.
Can we all get past any prejudices we have against Dennis Kucinich and read his 35 Articles of Impeachment and then realize that we're never going to get over this betrayal by our leaders until we call them to account? There are some wounds that need to be lanced, or they never heal.
http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=93581
June 16, 2008 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
duh...
even I could see that way back when.
But MSM wanted a war just a badly as Little Georgie and The Big Dick did. War makes for "good television".
I think Shakespeare had it wrong... it's not "first we kill all the lawyers" it should be "first we kill all the media barons"
But then again, that might be in bad taste.
June 16, 2008 9:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only if they televise it! Killing makes for good television.
June 17, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
he provided the false Iraq-al-Qaeda link while undergoing harsh interrogation.
So it turns out torture actually did generate "useful" intelligence -- to Cheney, in the form of made-up scare stories to justify the illegal invasion.
June 17, 2008 12:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Let us not speak falsely now for the hour it grows late..." Bob Dylan (unless the kid from Hibbing stole this line too )
The time it does indeed grow late for this administration's to be held accountable for all of its malfeasance and criminal activity. Impeach we can , and impeach the gwb43 organized crime conspiracy we must .
Why can't Senator Obama make this a campaign issue. Why can't former Vice President Gore be the point man on this for the Progressive Coalition we see forming around Team Obama . Mr Gore set up this dynamic very well in his endorsement pitch for Senator Obama.
I simply belief it is a false assesment at best , or deliberate disinformation at worst that impeachment proceedings will hurt the progresives in the general election.
Ten town hall meetings with Sen McCain surely that would be the place to bring up all the lies and malfeasence of the ongoing criminal enterprise known as gwb43.
Need more proof of war crimes -refer to the article today's tpm that states Bagram is worse then Gitmo .
"You and I we've through that -but this is not our fate -let us not speak falsely now for the hour it grows late "
We need accountablity -we need to stand up to these bullies - we need to tell Madam Speaker to lead , follow , or get the hell out of the way ..
Bring it own - get Big Al Gore out there on this one - heck we've nothing to fear but fear itself ....
June 17, 2008 5:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
"a very hazy distinction"
Rule #2 in creating Big Lies;
after the fact, obfuscate, deny and defer...
June 17, 2008 8:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Why can't Senator Obama make this a campaign issue."
If theyare willing to break the rules so egregiously to begin with, they are certainly willing to use the power of the pardon to protect each other, and they are obviously quite willing to send thousands more to death and dismemberment when they feel threatened... (remember the surge?)
As long as Bush is in office, any perceived threat to this administration's chief henchmen, vrom Bush to Cheney to the CEO of Haliburton will likely result in the deaths of more US troops, and quite possibly another 9/11.
Once the 111th is seated, and a much larger majority is achieved in both chambers, AND a Democrat is in the White House, any actual impeachment will cause pain and suffering to innocent soldiers and citizens. They have proven they are more than willing to sacrifice the lives of our young men and women to assure their future profits, both in oil and oil field services, not to mention the no-bid billion dollar profiteering.
Not to take away from Kucinich and Waxman's (along with a few other stalwart constitutionsl idealists), they act as a crimestopper, to keep the threat of impeachment on the shelf, if not on the table. But any actual legal decisions arrived at in terms of holding these rogues accountable will be dumped into the bin of Bush hypocrisy like Scooter Libby'c conviction. Once Bush no longer has the power to pardon, then it will be time to drop the ahammer down, and anyone who suggests the 111th should forget the misdeeds of this lawless administration, or wtries it off as "revenge politics" should themselves be considered guilty.
Nothing on Earth should stop us from holding these lawless, no-bid, book-cooking co-conspirators and profiteers accountable for the disaster they call the Iraq War.
We have all the proof we need to send them all to Leavenworth (better yet, Gitmo..), it is written in the headlines and history books and on the blogs across the web. But until the lawless one if gone from office, nothing we do to rectify this egregious assault on our constitution and on our citizens will survive his poison pardon pen.
June 17, 2008 8:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
See, the meeting happened, but it happened in Dick Cheney's head. That's enough ....
June 17, 2008 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
jeb07,
Respectfully Obama can make this a campaign issue , and use it against McCain - the great deceivers can be made acountable through this election cycle -and then once we have the majority we go after indictments - and Hague referrals ...
And what better surrogate to talk about buchcheny crimes then Vice President Gore ..
June 18, 2008 4:49 AM | Reply | Permalink