JLF: The Senate is Calling Out Bush. Why is No One Listening?

The United States Select Senate Committee on Intelligence is a rotating selection of members from the House chamber.  This committee was created in 1975, and its sole mission is to make sure that the U.S.'s intelligence agencies are using their power correctly.  Is the FBI collecting info on the right people?  Is the CIA making sound policy based on their collected intelligence?  I mean, if ever there was a case for them to get to work, it'd be the invasion of Iraq, no?

9/11 changed everything.  Obviously, the President and Congress had no choice but to respond to the attack, but how they responded?  That was a topic of much debate.

We ended up attacking Al Qaida forces in Afghanistan, passing the Patriot Act, invading Iraq and authorizing the torture of prisoners.  [Yay!]  The U.S. government, at every step of the way, presented "facts" to back up their actions.  Torture because these terrorists know stuff.  Patriot Act because the terrorists are crawling amongst us.  Iraq because of... well, what is is now? 

As the world asked questions, the Bush administration shoved these facts down its ears and boss-hogged their policies into reality.  The facts they shoved were suspect, and the Senate Committee of Intelligence was on it.  I mean, if the administration knowingly used misleading intelligence, officials could be impeached and even brought up on charges of murder/crimes against humanity.  [Yay!]

So, this report from the United States Select Senate Committee on Intelligence.  Was it a priority?  We invaded Iraq in March, 2003.  Questions about the intelligence crept up weeks later when we reached Baghdad and found no stockpile of nuclear weapons.  It doesn't sound crazy to me to have this intelligence report on January, 2004.  That's when phase 1 came out.  Phase 2?  it's rolled out over four years, with pieces being released from September 2006 until the last pieces released a week ago.  Not much of a rush there.... only four-and-a-half years later.  They debated going into war for a couple of months, but it's been over 4 years to figure out if that was right.

Argh.

This second phase is quite clear in its findings.  I could summarize the document for you, but the committee already did a great job.  So meaty are these bullets, there is no need to expound further.

• Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa’ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa’ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.
• Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.
• Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.
• Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq’s chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community’s uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.
• The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.
• The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

In addition, they released another report:

Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.  The report found that the clandestine meetings between Pentagon officials and Iranians in Rome and Paris were inappropriate and mishandled from beginning to end.  Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz failed to keep the Intelligence Community and the State Department appropriately informed about the meetings.   The involvement of Manucher Ghobanifer and Michael Ledeen in the meetings was inappropriate.  Potentially important information collected during the meetings was withheld from intelligence agencies by Pentagon officials.  Finally, senior Defense Department officials cut short internal investigations of the meetings and failed to implement the recommendations of their own counterintelligence experts.

I mean... COME ON.  Lies!  Proof of lies!  Findings of lies!  Lies to falsely start a war!  We're not just talking about bad intelligence, but that their statements purposefully ignored the intellivence they had.  To me, that makes Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. war criminals.  Clear cut.  JLF fact.

But, why isn't the press covering this?  Why aren't the Democrats pushing on this?  What is going on?  If I was an alien, looking in, I'd beam this info right into everyone's brain... because I'd have the technology.  I just can't take it that we finally have the ability to call the Bush administration to task as they crap all over the environment, economy, civil rights, international policy, the country's safety, the respect of CIA agents, FEMA disaster... and no one's doing it but JLF.

I'm full HAWT.

Always your pleasure.

 - JLF



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