jar writes:
Bullshit Buz. When the Administration flat lied to both the people and the Congress, withheld and distorted evidence, the blame lies squarely on their shoulders.
Ok, I guess I have to step in sometime to point out something.
There are 3 intelligence agencies that contributed to the overall so-called massive intelligence failure. Take out any one of the three and pretty much the other two are not guilty at all.
The intelligence that Saddam tried to buy uranium from nigeria and that the aluminum tubes he acquired were for building nuclear weapons was forged up by an italian who sold the forged documents to the Italian intelligence agency (SISMY). SISMY then gave copies of the documents to the French intelligence, which the French outright rejected as reliable intelligence. SISMY then shared the information to the CIA and the British intelligence. The CIA, being under pressure from the Bush administration to produce something, anything, to point to Saddam's guilt, actually tried to confirm the information.
What did the CIA do to confirm it? They contacted the British intelligence and lo and behold they were pleased to find that the British had also acquired such information. The so-called massive intelligence failure came in when neither the CIA nor the British cited their source of information, which was SISMY. In other words, neither knew that they both got the water from the same poisoned well. Hence, the famous words that made it into the State of the Union address, "Our British ally has recently learned that Saddam had tried to acquire uranium from blah blah blah..."
So, who's fault was it? Was it the Italian? They did send the CIA the information with a disclaimer. Was it the British? They were asked by the CIA about the information and they gave an honest answer that yes they recently got word that Saddam tried to buy uranium from Africa. Was it the CIA? They got intelligence from an ally and confirmed the it with another ally.
Disclaimer:
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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!
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