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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (147522)	10/10/2004 7:48:07 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The argument that the "whole world believed" he had wmds, overlooks the fact that our CIA is the leading intelligence agency in the world, and that it shares information around the globe. To say that they were trusted around the world and therefor the "world" agreed is simply circular logic. Absolutely. Not to mention that after 9/11, you can bet top dollar the CIA would be extremely motivated to "get it right". Either Quality is Not Job 1 at the CIA, or, faced with no facts, the administration had to find another way to butress their case. Enter Dick Cheney's "Office of Special Plans", now confirmed to have been sending the Whitehouse only that which it wanted to hear. Its a brilliant move on Cheney's part, you have to admire him for that. Set up a cloistered working group of intelligence people, loyal to the administration, tasked with the job of finding facts to support the Administration's desires or to cherry pick information to do same. When the crap hits the fan, and someone like Cheney knew this would be inevitable, a fail safe of some sort is needed: - The OSP. An arms length working group, perfect. Its "their" conclusions, thus protecting the Pentagon at large. - The OSP is setup in the Pentagon on purpose, knowing in advance that it may be embarassed in the future. Why the Pentagon? So it doesn't cause the CIA to suffer yet more embarassment as another major failure after 9/11 would harm more than just George Tenet, the intitution and relationships with foreign powers might be irreparably harmed. When Powell gets up in front of the U.N. and puts America's credibility on the line This was the crucial act in the play. Powell's personal credibility bolstered the case nd therefore America's credibility. when the Vice President and the President of the U.S. broadcast with CERTAINTY that we KNOW the wmds are in existence, the PRE-Iraq invasion world believed. Exactly right. What facts were spoon fed by a hand-picked group of intelligence people were then rebroadcast to the world (and in top secret pouches to governments around the world too). One big distortion, designed to get everyone to say what Bush wanted to hear "Saddam Bad, We Understand He Must Be Removed". Doesn't matter whether the supporting facts would later turn out to be completely wrong, since the OSP provides plausible deniability. But a funny little thing on the way to the cleaners happened, not everyone in the intelligence and security community is mindless automaton and they are speaking out and telling the truth as it was known then, before the Iraq invasion. Eventually these small personal acts of bravery will snowball and the entire truth will come out. We can count on it.