CIA=Real Politiks

Annie

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Nov 22, 2003
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Links.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005966.php

December 18, 2005
Powell: CIA Never Told Administration Of WMD Doubts

Colin Powell has dropped a water balloon on his friends of the Left and their "Bush Lied, People Died!" cri du coeur during a BBC interview due to be aired within hours. Mark in Mexico caught this early report of Powell's revelation that the American intelligence agencies never gave the White House any contradictory intelligence to the prevailing wisdom that Saddam Hussein had retained and hidden his WMD stocks and capability throughout the twelve-year quagmire of UN impotence, corruption, and failing containment:

THE US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq​
, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night.

Mr Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."

"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said.​

This, of course, brings up the question as to whether those doubts actually existed at the time -- or more accurately, whether any evidence had developed counter to the existing intelligence before the invasion at all. Later, of course, the CIA came up with information that cast doubt on the Bush administration's interpretation of the intelligence both he and Congress reviewed -- the same intelligence Powell saw in both administrations and the same conclusions reached by all Western nations before Bush took office in 2001.

It sounds like the notion that the CIA has decided to conduct its own war against Bush and the elected government isn't quite as far-fetched as one might imagine. Powell's accusation will put quite a different take on the presumed narrative and start people wondering what the hell Langley has been doing since 9/11. It's starting to look like they have hung the CYA sign in front of the facility to replace their old logo.
Posted by Captain Ed at December 18, 2005 08:47 AM
 
I tend to check the claims made in blogs from several sources.

<a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/21/AR2005052100474.html>The Washington Post</a>

From <a href=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1106-01.htm>The New York Times</a>

And contrary to the popular myth that foreign intelligence services concurred with the Administration's assessment of pre-war intel, <a href=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-curveball20nov20,0,658127,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines>this</a> regarding the German assessment of that intell

Watching the David Frost interview with Powell from begining to end, I heard no such claim being made by Mr. Powell. You can link to the interview <a href=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4538788.stm>HERE</a>.
 
Bullypulpit said:
I tend to check the claims made in blogs from several sources.

<a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/21/AR2005052100474.html>The Washington Post</a>

From <a href=http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1106-01.htm>The New York Times</a>

And contrary to the popular myth that foreign intelligence services concurred with the Administration's assessment of pre-war intel, <a href=http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-curveball20nov20,0,658127,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines>this</a> regarding the German assessment of that intell

Watching the David Frost interview with Powell from begining to end, I heard no such claim being made by Mr. Powell. You can link to the interview <a href=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4538788.stm>HERE</a>.

I can't open the video, and I can't find a link to the transcript, but from the BBC article you linked to:
In an interview with Sir David Frost for the BBC World TV channel, he described his disappointment with the failings of US intelligence on Iraq, and his arguments with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the campaign.

'Like Casablanca'

He was speaking after his successor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, faced tough questioning about the use of rendition during a recent trip to Europe.

She admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation, but said this was "a lawful weapon", and denied the prisoners were tortured.


Public opinion worldwide is against us
Colin Powell

She refused to address claims that the CIA runs secret prisons abroad where suspects are interrogated without reference to international law.

But Gen Powell was dismissive of the furore in Europe.

"There's a little bit of the movie Casablanca in this, where, you know, the inspector says 'I'm shocked, shocked that this kind of thing takes place'.

"Well, most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place... The fact that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected of terrorist activities, and so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."
 

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