PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: MKTBUZZ who started this subject	11/19/2003 1:14:50 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) of 769670

IRAQ AND AL QAEDA In its cover story this week, The Weekly Standard presented classified intelligence data concerning the relationship between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda. The Standard article, written by Stephen F. Hayes and rather presumptuously entitled "Case Closed," is based on a classified letter sent by Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It cites numerous reports of contacts between Iraqi officials and al Qaeda that appear to indicate an operational relationship between the two. The article is posted here: tinyurl.com But in a remarkable if oddly worded dismissal, the Pentagon stated that "News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate." The Feith letter "was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions," the Pentagon said. Furthermore, "Individuals who leak or purport to leak classified information are doing serious harm to national security; such activity is deplorable and may be illegal." defenselink.mil It is in the nature of raw intelligence reports that they are susceptible to multiple interpretations, some more plausible than others. Even reliably accurate data can mean radically different things depending on the larger context. That is why intelligence reports are subjected to analysis, and not simply siphoned directly to policy makers. The Weekly Standard article in effect bypassed the analytical process, yielding a sensational but hardly conclusive result. Stephen F. Hayes today responded to the Defense Department's statement regarding his story in the Weekly Standard online here: tinyurl.com

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next