Many Americans who were skeptical about the need to invade Iraq were reassured after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the case to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003. After all, if Powell thought Iraq posed a real and present danger, then it must be true. But it turns out that a key claim in his U.N. presentation was opposed by top intelligence officials. In reviewing the speech beforehand for errors, Tyler Drumheller, who was the CIA’s European operations chief, crossed out the claim about Iraq building mobile biological labs for germ warfare, because he knew the source of the claim was a discredited Iraqi defector named Curveball, The Washington Post reported. Yet the claim still was included in Powell’s speech.
How did that happen? In part, it was because then-CIA Director George Tenet personally vouched for the accuracy of the mobile-lab claim, the Post reported. The labs were never found, and Tenet later received a Medal of Freedom.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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34 Comments
Most of what I read of the lead up to the build up to the invasion has Tenet totally against it. Numerous times he is quoted as saying there was no proof or flat out saying that the administration had it wrong.Warning that “Curveball” was said to be unreliable, that the best the CIA could come up with showed that there was no indication that Saddam still had WMDs or was continuing with the production of them.The intel that stated he had them was over ten years old.
So why the switch?
With the money we are spending in Iraq, we could have bought Saddam out and send him in exile somewhere in Africa to spend the rest of his days.
The dicision to invade Iraq had already been made by the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Israeli/Rice cabal. The White house was just piling-up “excuses” to begin the “Project for the New American Century.”
Next on the “excuse” list is Iran.
A Complete discussion by the Pentagon of the US attacking Iran using Nuclear Weapons. This insanity is being driven, it appears, by Bush’s religious beliefs { a lengthy read }.
The New Yorker: “Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, “The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision.”He went on, “Nuclear planners go through extensive training and learn the technical details of damage and fallout—we’re talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact
But Ed! The Iranian President believes in the same thing. The Islamic version of Revelations. Mutual Destruction?
Maybe we need a nuclear winter. Cool the planted down from the Al Gore apolistic global warming doom.
It’s a win win!
WD This explains how it all came to be
THE DARK SIDE ……..A PBS Documentary
The Dark Side
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/
I need to watch it. I have the link, but yet to set on my computer and watch it all. I hope they replay it on tv or I can rent it on Netflix (it’s not on there yet).
I hope it makes me like Cheney more.
Joe, It’s a wake-up call. I’m surprized that PBS did it.
The Powell fiasco has been known to be a sham for years. It’s probably what turned Powell off to this administrations politics. Too bad. He probably had a chance at the presidency prior to that.
Tenet certainly didn’t get a medal of freedom for services to this country. He got it for loyalty to Bush. But then again, that’s what Bush sees as service to his country. Sick man.
Guys, a quickie about Gitmo.
http://www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com/video/redband_large.html
I can personally vouch for the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so where’s my medal?
ED! So far I’ve watched 3 chapters our of 6 online on the “Dark Side”.
There isn’t nothing so far that catches me that can be considered “tin foil conspiracy”, but I still have more to watch.
So far it just looks like infighting between the CIA and DOD, with Cheney on the DOD side. He had legitmate reasons to not side with the CIA, because they got a lot of intelligence wrong through so many years and Cheney couldn’t trust that during a time of crisis. But Bush did allow the CIA to run their operation in Afghanistan first. They tortured terrorist for information and the CIA stumbled on one that that supported the DOD’s claim on Iraq. This wasn’t intentional. The CIA and the DOD were dymetrically opposed.
I’ll finish the rest later and give you another report on the second half. GO CHENEY!
It’s really so easy when you think about it–the US invaded Iraq and within a 24 months, the price of oil has tripled and OPEC grips our balls tighter than ever.
Who benefits? Houston oil men. What was Bush’s business background? Oil. Cheney? Oil. Rice? Oil. Half the top administration? Oil.
There was one reason and one reason alone that we invaded and occupy Iraq and you have to be a little stupid not to see it.
Control the oil and you control the price. Control the price and you make bazillions of dollars.
http://www.gregpalast.com/was-the-invasion-of-iraq-a-jewish-conspiracy
Too bad about Powell. I always had the greatest respect and admiration for the guy till he sold his soul (and principals) to BushCo. There was a time I would have liked to see him run for president. Now, I wouldn’t vote for him for dog catcher.
Everybody has there price. Everybody.
Joe
This will be your “term” paper, so write notes on your sleve, so, you know, you’ll have “talking points.”
Bob must be real smart to have figured all that out. “Houston Oil men,” well Whodathought?
XXX, Assistant Dog Catcher?
Not even assistant dog catcher, my friend.
Maybe assistant lackey.
I love conspiracy theories.
Pat–
The title is a joke about conspiracy theories, which you’d get if you read the article.
As for “conspiracy” to get Iraqi oil, there wasn’t any. It was just business as usual.
“I saw my opportunities and I took ‘em.” George Washington Plunkitt, Tammany Hall
JOE,
WAKE UP. Bush and Cheney Manipulated this war!!!
They totally ignored the CIA, they set up their own lapdog intelligence arm within the DOD, and they tried to connect Saddam on the day of 9/11. Then they send out some sham of a presentation to the U.N. deliverd by Powell. ETC, ETC, ETC.
You know I hate to insult, but my respect for your intelligence decreases the longer you continue to be a close-minded no holds barred BUSH supporter. You would hold more credibiltiy and integrity if you would admit some criticism is warranted towards this administration.
I will admit that I was duped by Powell and his presentation. I firmly believed we were doing the right thing back in 2003, and trusted that our govt. had thought this through and would make the right decisions. AND then the WAR profiteering ties came into play, and the debunking of pre-war intelligence, and the downing street memo. I finally understood that this is a ugly and greedy world, and that our young men and woman in the service were being used for a fucking Business Deal!!
I could go on and on but I get to upset. I hate seeing this great structure of a democracy go down the tubes. I had it wrong when I thought we were the great country of morals and ethics, and it has broken my heart to see our leaders go down the dark and ugly road.
You might have a point GaryC, but I believe that Bush Lynching doesn’t warrent a good enough aurgument to discredit the administration.
They aren’t out to get you and to establish a dictorial style government. They are on the side of the American interest. Not Oil.
Joe- You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think you may have just redefined naive.
Intellectually, Bush is about as deep a Saran wrap, indeed barely able to operate a compound sentence! I think someone is calling the shots, but I don’t know whom, and I’m not a comspiracy nut. There seem to be large geopolitical forces at work, with important resultant dynamics that are beyond me. This is not, I think, a random event.
It’s called the unpreditable events that happens everyday in life, gster.
There isn’t an olagarcy pulling strings or making things happen for the purpose of gaining wealth or power. I honestly believe you guys are bing a bit niave to think that it is.
The world is way to complicated to have events controlled by a very few people. It just doesn’t work that way.
And if you think that Bush is being sidelined and somebody else is driving the American Government, you’re wrong. Bush and his administration are but a small spoke in the wheel of government and you guys give him way too much credit for thinking he dictates the day-to-day of your lives and events around the world.
Joe- Huh?? Say What??
DONG! DONG! DONG! DONG!
(You’ve broken the DING!)
Reread your last- I think you’re gargling your bath water on this.I don’t know what to say about that.
I think everything in the Bush cabal is moving along as it’s supposed to.
I’ve always believed that Senior was to serve a second term, then Junior was next in line to step into the Oval Office. Clinton (or Bubba, as his “dearest friends” call him) royally screwed up the plan by beating Senior and staying in a second term. Time was of the essence and the clock was ticking, hence the strange goings-on during the 2000 election. The 2004 election followed, and we all know how that turned out.
Take a look at the major players in the Bush administration for the past 5 years. Many of them were working behind the scenes in politics during JFK’s shortened term, Johnson’s mess, and the Nixon years. Not only is it uncanny, it borders on suspicious.
Remind me to take off my tinfoil hat before going to bed. It really is uncomfortable to sleep in.
Hey gster and Gary.
I have been reading Joe for a year. Trust me on this. Just when you think he can’t get any further into the twilight zone he stretches the outer limits and proves ya wrong.He is a good guy Joe. But I think his world has a sky full of yellow happy faces and springs of valium to drink from.Joe?
You are correct that bush himself is not some oligarch. He is a puppet. He was selected to be a puppet and that is his function. Look at bush pre 911 and tell me I am wrong. Before that opportunity was afforded his handlers, his only policy speech was to decry stem cell research……a clear pander to his fundie base.
And Powell? Why do you think he bailed? He tried to tell bush what Iraq would be. (Pottery Barn rule) But he cannot be forgiven for being the front man for the mouthpiece that is bush. Is he seen on any of the talking heads shows? He is harder to find these days then Osama. In a way I feel sorry for him. A career soldier, he did as his commander ordered. He followed orders. For that, any future he had was destroyed while the shadow folks who sent him out got medals. Sad.
Well said RD.
Anyone who studied the facts at all knew Powell was lying. The thing that amazes me is that we still see Republicans in Congress claiming that there were modern (post-Iran-Iraq war) WMDs in Iraq.
Of course, anyone who tells the truth will be labeled an America-hater by Goose-stepper Nathan and his bunch of rightie wingnuts.
Powell was always an ethically challenged, affirmative action incompetent. BH is right; he lied willingly about mythical wmds.
Rd,
Clinton was part of the program all along. He was chosen by the same banking cabal that issue order to shrub. Slick Willy ran as a populist and soon betrayed us with nafta and other globalist nonsense and treason. Clinton ordered the bombing of Serbia and killed up to 7000 civilians in so doing. The scumbag and his hag mad albright put sanctions into place against Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, many of them children.
Viva La Raza Blanco!!!
Joe I was going to tell you good for you and please have a open mind while watching the pbs program. So far though it would seem that you have not. Like GaryC I too supported Bush and thought there must be a real need for the invasion of Iraq. (I really need to finish what I was writing about Bush and right or wrong president) But by the time of the 2004 elections I knew he was lying and my mistake was thinking it was so well known. That to me it was on the same level of saying the sun is shining at ten O clock on a bright shiny day! I am a news junky, watching all the Sunday morning political shows and reading the paper National and state sections and several news sites.
Before the election I knew about “Curveball” and that he was deemed unreliable by the Germans who had passed along him saying the Atta and a high ranking official from Iraqis intelligence had met. I had learned that the “Tubes” were not for a reactor. All this was already out there, most of what was being said was dismissed as Partisan politics and Bush bashing. But it has been confirmed as true, the majority it appear did not know as Bush was re-elected.
In what I have written so far I touch on how partisan politics has been used to mask what Bush or should I say the cartel of those running Bush is doing. I have tried to stay away from conspiracy theories, but what is going on and how it has been accomplished tops all others in it brilliances. This did not just happen six years ago, it spans over a decade maybe two. Ed has touched on some of it, but its true extent is beyond a tie between Israel and the PNAC. Yeah this would take the whole roll of tin foil to make this hat.
We keep seeing the same question as to is it illegal? Perhaps the most frightening thing is that it just may not be! The cabal is not so stupid, they have studied the political system for thirty years or better. The behind the scene action in Washington is not being talked about. There is a real scramble to try and stop this cabal. So far, they are at a loss as to how to stop it through the system of Government.
Ian,
Sorry, but the dogged determination to oust Clinton on absolutely anything they could dig up makes him being a big part of the insanity hard to swallow. I’m not saying everything done during the Clinton years was good. Far from it. But I don’t think the PTB (powers that be) were pleased when he defeated Bush 1.
In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that Monica Lewinski was a pawn. Used, abused, paid well and tossed aside. And I don’t mean by Bubba.
This describes Ann Coulter’s role in the Paula Jones case:********************************************************************Coulter played one particularly key role in keeping the Jones case alive. In Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff’s new book Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story, Coulter is unmasked as the one who leaked word of Clinton’s “distinguishing characteristic” — his reportedly bent penis that Jones said she could recognize and describe — to the news media. Her hope was to foster mistrust between the Clinton and Jones camps and forestall a settlement…”I thought if I leaked the distinguishing characteristic it would show bad faith in negotiations. [Clinton lawyer] Bob Bennett would think Jones had leaked it. Cammaratta would know he himself hadn’t leaked it and would get mad at Bennett. It might stall negotiations enough for me to get through to [Jones adviser] Susan Carpenter-McMillan to tell her that I thought settling would hurt Paula, that this would ruin her reputation, and that there were other lawyers working for her. Then 36 hours later, she returned my phone call.
“I just wanted to help Paula. I really think Paula Jones is a hero. I don’t think I could have taken the abuse she came under. She’s this poor little country girl and she has the most powerful man she’s ever met hitting on her sexually, then denying it and smearing her as president. And she never did anything tacky. It’s not like she was going on TV or trying to make a buck out of it.”(1999)********************************************************************The whole wipipedia entry here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Coulter
So, some republicans were willing to stir up the pot against Clinton. And, you know that Ann just had poor Paula’s interests at heart…
But back to the subject, I recall looking forward to Powell’s U.N. speech as being our chance to hear the real story. I remember being very disappointed that their main pieces of evidence were an artist’s rendition of what we thought the mobile biowarfare labs would look like and the recording of two Iraqi soldiers alerting each other that someone [allegedly weapons inspectors] was coming.
I remember the Iraqi delegation laughing at the evidence presented. It was pretty disappointing.