Senate Intel Report: Administration Dishonest in Lead-up to Iraq War
The Senate Intelligence Committee has just released its looooong awaited report on the Bush administration’s public statements in the run-up to the Iraq War. It’s the final part of the committee’s five-year investigation into the prewar intelligence failures. And from Chairman Jay Rockefeller’s statement accompanying the report, it appears to be harder-hitting than was expected:
In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed….
There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.
That’s about as close as you’ll ever hear Sen. Rockefeller come to accusing the administration of lying.
The 88-page report, which also includes voluminous dissension from the Republican members of the committee as to the report’s conclusions, is available here (pdf). There’s also a 57-page companion report (pdf) faulting the special office set up under former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and run by Doug Feith for “inappropriate” intelligence activities. Let us know (in comments below) what catches your eye.
Update: McClatchy has a good rundown of the report.
Get Updates
Our Hottest Stories
- Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
- Time Out: Federal Complaint Alleges Rampant Abuse in Texas Truancy Program
- In Westchester, Progress on Housing and the Specter of Another Fight
- Worried about the Mass Surveillance? How to Practice Safer Communication
- When Interns Should be Paid: A #ProjectIntern Explainer
- Walmart Accepted Clothing from Banned Bangladesh Factories
- Without a Final Map, New York Rebuilds on Uncertain Ground
- Objection Overruled: Top Prosecutor Must Testify in Wrongful Conviction Case
- Rape and Other Sexual Violence Prevalent in Juvenile Justice System
- Remember When the Patriot Act Debate Was All About Library Records?
- Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
- The NSA Black Hole: 5 Basic Things We Still Don’t Know About the Agency's Snooping
- Walmart Accepted Clothing from Banned Bangladesh Factories
- The Best Stories on the Government’s Growing Surveillance
- Worried about the Mass Surveillance? How to Practice Safer Communication
- Betting Against the Future: How Industry Loses When Interns Go Unpaid
- Remember When the Patriot Act Debate Was All About Library Records?
- Unpaid Interns Win Major Ruling in 'Black Swan' Case — Now What?
- A Father’s Day Remembrance
- Housing Crisis: Widespread Discrimination; Little Taste for Enforcement
1 comments
Epa Minondas
June 11, 2008, 4:20 a.m.
I spotted your site and am hopeful of unvarnished, facts.. but when the way your report lines up against what WaPo says…
........................................
But dive into Rockefeller’s report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.
On Iraq’s nuclear weapons program? The president’s statements “were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates.”
On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president’s statements “were substantiated by intelligence information.”
On chemical weapons, then? “Substantiated by intelligence information.”
On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? “Generally substantiated by intelligence information.” Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? “Generally substantiated by available intelligence.” Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? “Generally substantiated by intelligence information.”
............................................
This makes you sound more like Huffington Post opinion as fact than NEWS REPORTAGE.
I hope that this is simply not a correct view.
Commenting on this story is closed.