WMD spin machine ready for its final trip out to the scrap heap:
Lies were fed to CIA on Iraq, Powell says
David E. Sanger, New York Times
WASHINGTON Secretary of State Colin Powell has said for the first time that he now believes that the Central Intelligence Agency was deliberately misled about evidence that Saddam Hussein was developing unconventional weapons.
He also said, in his comments on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" on Sunday, that he regretted citing evidence that Iraq had mobile biological laboratories in his presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003.
...But on Sunday, Powell argued that the CIA itself was misled,
...On Sunday, Powell hinted at widespread reports of fabrications by an engineer who provided much of the most critical information about the labs. Intelligence officials have since found that the engineer was linked to the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group that was pressing President George W. Bush to unseat Saddam.
Taken with past admissions of error by the administration or its intelligence agencies, Powell's statement on Sunday leaves little room for the administration to argue that Saddam's stockpiles of unconventional weapons posed any real and imminent threat.
"Basically, Powell ... "... is out there publicly saying this now because he doesn't want a legacy as the man who made up stories to provide the president with cover to go to war."
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The New York Times
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