I know it's pretty much redundant by this time in history, but there's a Senate report set to be released today that blasts the U.S. intelligence community (read: CIA) for abject failures in reading the pre-Iraq invasion tea leaves. Ok, so this isn't really news. And probably more to the point, going into the fall election season, the report gives the Bush regime another escape hatch for its failed Iraqi adventure.
Here's what needs to happen between now and then (and I hope the Kerry campaign is already on it) - one example - take apart Colin Powell's presentation to the U.N. on the eve of invasion. I remember clearly screaming at the TV the day I watched the presentation. The "evidence" that Powell was using was flimsy at best. It would not have stood up in a high school mock court. Yet George Tenet was right next to Powell, nodding approval. Of course the storyboards that Powell was using were based on crap intelligence.
But dissecting the chatter following the invasion, and lack of WMD findings, it became quite clear that even George Tenet was not happy or convinced by the evidence the Bush regime was using to sell its bill of goods to the world. And since that time, we've also found out that Ahmed Chalabi used channels other than the CIA to funnel the most incendiary claims up the BushCo chain of command. The CIA wasn't in the loop. The CIA told the Bush administration that the INC's claims couldn't be independently corroborated, and that Chalabi was a well known weasel.
The real crime is that the decision makers in the Bush regime chose to filter intel from various sources through their own bias filters. Anything that countered their preconceived notions was given no credence; anything that supported their positions was gospel. And that's no way to make informed decisions.
It's no surprise to me that the decision making process proceeded in the manner that it did. George Bush has been correctly described as the "first CEO president". The use of select intelligence to bolster the Iraqi case is one of the better, but certainly not the only, example of his CEO mindset. Just about every private company I've ever worked for has a corporate 'shoot the messenger' mentality - in other words, bring no bad news. Most companies only want good news that supports the decisions that have already been made. It's a long standing corporate reality. That George Bush was CEO of a couple of failed companies prior to his pResidency speaks volumes (in retrospect) about how selectively the intelligence information being fed into the White House was treated.
Over the past 24 months, various Republican-controlled Senate and House investigations into various aspects of the Iraq story have avoided this central issue - select use of intelligence, and the "corporate mindset" that fostered this environment. I can think of no more damning indictment of the entire political climate in the U.S. than taking one country to war against another based on preconceived notions.
US 'distorted Saddam intelligence'No kidding.
By Isabel Oakeshott, Evening Standard Political Correspondent, 7 July 2004
Spy chiefs were today facing accusations of "worldwide intelligence failures" over the case for war in Iraq.
A damning report by US senators is expected to lambast the intelligence that led to the conflict.
The American version of the Butler Inquiry is due to be published tonight. It will find the CIA distorted or misrepresented intelligence to conclude Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
The findings are the most damaging attack yet on the intelligence used to justify the war and will be a blow for President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Details of the report were leaked less than 24 hours after Mr Blair admitted for the first time that weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is expected to find that the CIA became an advocate of war, rather than an impartial adviser, giving President Bush only the information he wanted to hear.
