Latest Investigation Concludes Bush Lied About Iraq War Intel!

By Scott Malensek

There have been innumerable investigations into the intelligence that was used as casus belli for the invasion of Iraq.Ý There were claims that Al Queda was in Iraq, that Al Queda leaders had met with Iraqi officials ever since Al Queda started killing Americans in 1992, and there were the WMD claims:

… ì3,000 ñ 11,000 litres of botulinum toxin, ì

… ì6,000 ñ 16,000 litres of anthrax, ì

… ìup to 5,600 litres of Clostridium perfringens, ì

… ìthe "significant quantity of an unknown bacterial agent"

… ì550 Mustard filled shellsî

… ìup to 450 mustard filled aerial bombs unaccounted for since 1998Ý (The mustard filled shells account for a couple of tonnes of agent while the aerial bombs account for approximately 70 tonnes)î

… ìdifferent types of aerial spray or other devices capable of disseminating Mustard agentî

… ì15,000 to 25,000 litres anthrax growth mediaî

… ì10,000 litres of anthraxî [already weaponized]

Some of these claims were actually investigated in a few of the 22 Federal investigations into how the 911 attacks happened; specifically, Iraqi ties to Al Queda were examined in

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)

Report On the 911 Attacks

And

The 911 Commission Final Report

The WMD Allegations, as well as specific allegations of pressuring analysts, creating intelligence, cherry-picking intelligence to falsely and deliberately present an incorrect threat analysis and more are investigated in these bi-partisan, international, and often independent reports:

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Investigation Into Pre-War Intelligence on Iraq

(also called the Phase I report)

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Investigation IntoÝ Postwar Findings about Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How they Compare with Prewar Assessments

(also called the Phase II pt1 report)

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Investigation Into the use of intelligence provided by the Iraqi National Congress

(also called the Phase II pt 2 report)

AnÝ independent and bi-partisan Commission was also convened to examine the pre-war intelligence allegations regarding WMD:

The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction

In the United Kingdom, there was great concern that the Bush Administration had deliberately misled their nation or worked with the Blair Administration to deliberately mislead the British public regarding Saddamís WMD capabilities and the ties between his regime and Al Queda.Ý Several more investigations were launched:

British Butler Report

and

The British Intelligence and Security Committee

InÝ response to some of the specific claims about the manipulation and deliberate distortion of intelligence information, the British also put together,

The Hutton Inquiry

The Australians who were also strongly committed to the invasion of Iraq were not pleased when the WMD claims listed above were not found.Ý They were among the first to investigate whether or not their intelligence regarding the WMD concerns were legitimate, and whether or not the intelligence provided by the Americans had been legitimate or deliberately misleading.Ý

Report of the Inquiry into Australian Intelligence Agencies

After the invasion, the United States also wanted to see specifically how the WMD claims had been inaccurate, what was found vs what was not, and to determine if Saddamís regime had in fact been a WMD threat at all.Ý The Iraq Survey Group (initially lead by former UN weapons inspector Dr David Kay and later by former UN weapons inspector Dr Duelfer) provided three reports composing over 1000 pages and remarkable photos.Ý It was easily the most detailed and descriptive post-invasion assessment of the WMD threat posed by Saddamís regime.

The Duelfer Report and huge, print-ready version with photos: HERE

Dr David Kay's Testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee

Dr Duelfer explains the alleged WMD threat from Saddam vs the real ìthreatî

And this week we have a report from the Department of Defenseís acting Inspector General.Ý This report examines whether or not the Department of Defenseís Office of Special Plans acted illegally in compiling intelligence reports regarding ties between Saddamís regime and Al Queda (given that none of the 16 intelligence agencies would produce a detailed, specific, and conclusive report on the matter).

Now, which of these investigations, which of these tens of thousands of pages, hundreds of thousands of hours of investigation, and billions of dollars spent has determined that President Bush lied about the WMD claims listed earlier, or about ties between Saddamís regime and Al Queda?

Answer:

NONE

In fact, the WMD claims listed at the opening of this article, a quotes from Dr Hans Blixí 3/6/03 Unresolved Disarmament Issues Report presented to the UN by UNMOVIC just days before the invasion.Ý None of them are Bush lies.

Every single bi-partisan investigation into the question of whether or not the Bush Administration deliberately misled the world to war in Iraq has found that rather than a Bush cabal, failures to find vast stockpiles of WMD described by the UN weapons inspectors were the result of bad intelligence: intelligence provided largely by agencies that had been starved of funding, had their leaders replaced by political appointees, been legally hamstrung by the American Congress, and lacked adequate Congressional oversight for the 10years prior to the invasion of Iraq.

This lack of Congressional oversight that directly led to the decay of the American intelligence community (all 16 agencies) was also found to be the reason that the 911 attacks were able to succeed.

Oh, and guess who keeps calling for these investigations, who continue to claim ìBush Lied,î or ìintelligence was pressured, manipulated, cherry-picked, created,î etc.?

Itís the people who were responsible for oversight of the intelligence agencies in the years they were left to rot.Ý

Decrepit intelligence agencies led to:

… Highest level penetrations of CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies by foreign spies and traitors

… National surprise following the collapse of the Soviet Union despite decades of monitoring

… The failure to locate Saddamís WMD stockpiles until his son-in-laws pointed them out in 1995

… The failure to kill Saddam in at least 4 pre-2003 attempts

… The failure to prevent Saddamís circumvention of UN sanctions

… The failure to capture/kill Osama Bin Laden on 8-11 occasions before 911

… The failure to detect and prevent the African Embassy Bombings

… The al Shifa bombing of an aspirin factory

… The failure to detect the Millennium attacks

… The failure to detect and prevent the bombing of the USS Cole

… The failure to monitor the Malaysia meeting where the attacks on the USS Cole and 911 attacks were set in motion

… The failure to recover a downed US spy plane and its incredibly valuable equipment

… The failure to prevent the 911 attacks on 250,000 Americans

… The failure to capture/kill Osama Bin Laden in the invasion of Afghanistan

… The failure to adequately determine the depth of the relationship between Saddamís regime and Al Queda

… The failure to adequately determine the WMD threat that Saddamís regime posed

Öand the list of intelligence failures goes on and onÖeach one can be traced back to the decade of funding-starvation at a time when the Federal government had a surplus.Ý Each one of those failures can be traced back to completely impotent, incorrect, and ill-advised Congressional oversight.

Isnít it time to ask why we keep having these investigations if they never find any evidence of the pressure, manipulation, or lies that are alleged?

Isnít it time to ask why 40% of Americans believe the Bush Administration either took part in the 911 attacks on America directly or knew of them and deliberately let them occur?

Almost everyone in the country-if not the world-believes one of two things regarding the U.S. invasion of Iraq: Bush Lied or the intelligence was bad.Ý Now, if all the investigations find no evidence of lies, and repeatedly determine that bad intelligence caused failures, then why believe ìBush Liedî?Ý Who is still perpetuating that myth, and what do they gain by doing so?Ý ÝIn almost every case, these investigations are ìdemandedî by the people responsible for overseeing the intelligence communities.Ý The same people who are responsible for their decay and the failures resulting from that; the same people who continue to point fingers away from themselves lest they be held accountable themselves.