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.
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.
Here's the link to the Yahoo story.
TIme to go set the TIVO!
I'm kind of amazed this isn't a big topic of discussion here at Kos today.
If it's already come and gone, well I guess I missed it, and forgive me for bringing it back up.
Drumheller, who was a top CIA liaison officer in Europe before the war, insisted Bush had been explicitly warned well before an invasion order was given that the United States may not find the suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The information about the absence of the suspected weapons in Iraq, according to excerpts of Drumheller's remarks, was clandestinely provided to the United States by former Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri, who doubled as a covert intelligence agent for Western services.
Then-CIA director George Tenet immediately delivered this report to Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other high-ranking administration officials, but the information was dismissed, Drumheller said.
"The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested," the former CIA official recalled. "And we said 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'
When the American public realizes that Bush wasn't merely a victim of bad intelligence, but deliberately ignored the real intelligence because "the policy toward Iraq was already set", and that Bush deliberately took us into an unnecessary and illegal war with thousands of our own killed and injured (four American sons killed just today) -- aren't they gonna be just a little PISSED OFF?
It's my opinion that this 60 minutes piece, if it is indeed as hard-hitting as the article sounds, will be the beginning of the end for Bushco.
I know, I know, we've said it before .....
But what Bush has always had in his favor was the benefit of the doubt. People who think "This is the United States of America, and the President gets information that nobody else gets. He may very well have gotten bad information that he thought was true!"
When they realize they were lied to ..........
Hoo boy.
UPDATE: Matt O did an excellent diary just before I did mine. He provides the CBS link regarding this story.
UPDATE2: Litigatormom has an excellent diary regarding the same story, and delves into the administration's further lying, including Tenet's quote about "the slam dunk" of WMD's in Iraq, which she proves is a lie by Tenet or a lie by the rest of the Administration. Good stuff