CIA: Baghdad abandoned chemical weapons program in 1991.

[kuozzman]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cia1feb01,1,6296401,print.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true

WASHINGTON — In what may be a formal acknowledgment of the obvious, the CIA has issued a classified report revising its prewar assessments on Iraq and concluding that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991, intelligence officials familiar with the document said.

The report marks the first time the CIA has officially disavowed its prewar judgments and is one in a series of updated assessments the agency is producing as part of an effort to correct its record on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, officials said.

The CIA's decision to distribute the report — titled "Iraq: No Large-Scale Chemical Warfare Efforts Since Early 1990s" — in classified channels underscores the awkwardness the agency faces as it continues to reconcile its prewar reporting with postwar realities in Iraq. Before the war, the CIA asserted that Iraq had stockpiled biological weapons and was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.

[paineinthearse]

1. First it was WMD's....

That was discredited by the inspectors' reports.

Then it was weapons of mass destruction-related programs. Now even the WMD-related programs have been discredited by this report.

Has anyone seen OBL lately?

[davsand]

2. The entire CIA didn't claim Iraq had chemical weapons.

It was only a select few who did--the guys Cheney and Rummy controlled. Shame the rest of the CIA didn't relase this until NOW--after the election.


Laura

[goodboy]

3. think they should've said that before 1400 soldiers died?

[candy331]

5. And just why do they find it so meaningful to bare their souls at this

point after 1,400 US soldiers have died, 100's 0f 1,000's of Iraqi's dead,just how many maimed and crippled for life who knows.

[leesa]

8. They did. It was the OSP, which was specifically formed becasue the CIA

was saying exactly these things, made the shit up and Bush spewed the shit to us.

[bobthedrummer]

9. It was Feith and folks like Bolton, both recently changing career choices

that were the OSP. There's even a bit about torture policies associated with Douglas Feith at OSP.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0520-02.htm

[pinto]

4. one small silver lining to the CIA/Pentagon Intel war, is this release.

In the midst of our Iraq quagmire, it's a nice note to see some "reassessment" made public - for whatever reason.

(I believe the reason has everything to do with the internal battles within the administration, and little, if any, interest in full disclosure or minimizing the human costs of this war. Still, more info trickles out...)



Thanks for the post.

(ed for clarity)

[davekriss]

6. Office of Special Plans

Before the Bush War, I recall all kinds of "senior" CIA types leaking that they disagreed with the rewrites and pressures and OSP summarizations of the actual "intelligence" (the latter -- what was squeezed out of the steel trap imposed by the Bush administration -- was not "intelligence", it was deliberate disinformation used to manufacture consent for war).

I recall also that, prior to the saber-rattling that started in the early Spring of 2002, the CIA supplied intelligence sufficient for Colin Powell and Condi Rice to separately state that Iraq represented no threat to the United States and its friends, that Iraq was successfully contained (anyone recall that principled and sane policy of Containment and Deterrence?). That was the Party line until we heard Condi announce so mournfully, in the spring, that Saddam Hussein might (might!) be holding as prisoner a fighter pilot thought killed in the first days of the first Gulf War. It was a trial balloon. To gauge the susceptibility and gullibility of the U.S. public to emotional triggers all meant to instill fear and rage and let loose the dogs of war.

U.S. foreign policy is filled with disgrace after disgrace post WWII, but no President has disgraced us anywhere near the degree of George Walker Bush, by far the "worst President ever". These are truly sad times. The emperor has no clothes but the people are blind...while they and their children and their childrens' children get their pockets picked clean...

[leesa]

7. Yah, we know. You told us that BEFORE the US invasion.

[LizW]

10. Imagine the agony of parents, spouses, siblings and children

who have lost family members in this war. Now they have to face once again that their loved ones' lives were taken simply because Bush wanted this war and he got it.

The grief must be unbearable. :cry:

[killbotfactory]

11. So? That wasn't the really REAL reason we invaded, duh!

Ask any Bush apologist! We really invaded to save the Middle East from itself by spreading democracy and feedom and liberty. The start was in Iraq. Now that they voted the insurgents into obscurity, all we have to do is wait for the democratic dominoes to fall in Iran and Syria and then Israel will be saved forever and Jesus will come down on a chariot made of gold-gilded chocolate and whisk us to Heaven. Amen.

[fshrink]

12. When we stopped selling them the product, that is.

But of course, the CIA didn't know about it. Noooooooooo...

[DavidDvorkin]

13. Oh, boy! This will be all over the news!

ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox -- they're going to be talking about nothing but this all day tomorrow! There'll be calls for impeachment!

Darn. Someone pinched me, and I woke up.

[Supersedeas]

46. PBS was talking about *'s Grand Historic Legacy tonite

[LynnTheDem]

14. Ok they had none by 1991...but in 2003 they sent them to Syria!!!

heh. :D

Just pretending to be a really stupid person (freepo-fascist-rightwingnut moran).

And NO, actually, the CIA DID NOT say Iraq was "reconstituting their nuclear program"; CHENEY the DICK said that, never the CIA.

History rewritten as we watch; now the CIA's 2002 NIE never happened and all the assertions made by BUSH and CHENEY and Cabal are to be blamed on the CIA.

Typical bush; total moral & physical coward.

[UL_Approved]

15. The breaking point

This whole blight of Neo-Cons is having an unexpected effect on our nation. People of all walks of life are starting to oppose the leadership of this country, and are doing so openly.

Do you think that this would have come out after September 11th?

How about 2002?

Did the people in the know think Bush would get a second term after the travesty that is this administration?

We all thought that the shit storm would all blow over, but we are finding out otherwise. People who would "wait it out" are now finding that they ARE the ones who need to change the world.

Always remember: those who do the most work are the ones in control...

[Massachusetts]

22. "Always remember: those who do the most work are the ones in control"...

Define the word WORK.

[UL_Approved]

47. Those who do the most to further their cause come out ahead

We all got spoiled in the Clinton years, and we made the assumption that democracy was something that could stand on its own.

The Neo-Con movement has been working tirelessly for about 25 years now, and it is getting its day.

Our work in the election drive this year, as Democrats, was only a few short months of hard work. We need to keep up this level of dedication for YEARS if we are to drive back the Bush followers. That is what I mean.

[Moderator]

16. Kick

[SheepyMcSheepster]

17. slam dunk!

:kick:

[tabasco]

18. The corporate media is gonna jump all over this !

Condi, Colin, Bush & Dick were telling us we were DOOMED if we did not attack NOW !

As a soldier, it disgusts me that the corrupt administration was so deceitful in rushing to war. There was no need for the massive death and destruction in Iraq. I consider Bush and his war-profiteering cronies MURDERERS. They acted in reckless disregard for human life when they lied to cause a war.

Of course, the republican media will nary make a peep about it. Profits are good in the weapons departments, so the "news" departments will tell us more about Michael Jackson instead.

[emad]

19. Tenet going down the an bigtime? The semi-abandoned Aldrich

Ames trail leads to where? Putin and Ken Lay.

Expect they're shitting bricks right now...

[NYC Liberal]

20. Phew, that's great news!

Now we don't have to invade Iraq!

Oh, wait...

[emad]

21. See also:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/CIA-Uturn-reported-Iraq-ended-WMD-program-in-1991/2005/02/02/1107228741804.html?oneclick=true

[seemslikeadream]

23. The intelligence was fine only the receptacle left something to be desired

[Mountainman]

24. Surprise! surprise!

The worse thing about this is that no one cares anymore.

[Carl Brennan]

25. Daddy, what does "pre-emption" mean?

Finally Bush can clear himself of this little mix-up. You see "pre-emptive" war can only be justified if the "enemy" is a direct threat and the only way Iraq could be a direct threat is if they have WMD's and they didn't have them and Bush muscled the CIA to say they did have them and then blamed the CIA when the weapons that were never there in the first place weren't found after "Mission Accomplished" was announced even though ten times as many people have died after mission accomplished than during the mission. George Tenet was "resignated" with full honors for doing Der Fuerher's dirty work. Bush's perception management specialists spun the resignating as a kind of cleaning house scenario. Now that the house has been cleaned they can move on and get over it.

And you should get over it too!


Then I heard some conservative saying the other day that the WMD's don't matter: "Saddam had to go"

Then I remember hearing that there is no democracy in either Kuwait, a country we "liberated" in the previous Gulf War, or Saudi Arabia, our staunch Arab ally in the region that, just coincidently is where 15 of the 19 hijackers came from who did the 9/11 attacks. But for some reason the BFEE run US doesn't care about democracy in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia only in Iraq!

Then I heard that Kuwait is a key drug transhipment point in the Mid-East. That combined with the fact that McDonald's golden arches are present makes it a democracy!


America you are going to pay and pay and pay for your ignorance.

[Rose Siding]

26. CIA Corrects Itself on Arms

A report, the first of its kind, says Baghdad ended its chemical weapons program in '91.

WASHINGTON — In what may be a formal acknowledgment of the obvious, the CIA has issued a classified report revising its prewar assessments on Iraq and concluding that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991, intelligence officials familiar with the document said.

The report marks the first time the CIA has officially disavowed its prewar judgments and is one in a series of updated assessments the agency is producing as part of an effort to correct its record on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, officials said.
...
Richard J. Kerr, a former senior CIA official who was hired by the agency last year to conduct an internal review of its prewar analysis, said he couldn't recall the agency ever issuing such a revisionist report on any subject.
...
A Jan. 4 report focused on Scud missiles and other delivery systems. Intelligence officials said future reports would revise the agency's claims that Iraq had stockpiles of biological weapons and was rebuilding its nuclear weapons program. Those allegations were a centerpiece of the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cia1feb01,1,4146281.story?coll=la-headlines-world

[mhr]

27. So They Lied To Satisfy Dubya, But Now Have Regrets About The Truth?

What is going on inside that place?

[Supersedeas]

28. a centerpiece that fell down the pre-US-election memory hole

[htuttle]

29. No mulligans once we start bombing, boys!

I know -- it wasn't their fault anyway. It's always someone else's fault in the Bush Administration's world.

[Pam-Moby]

30. This administration has controlled

everything and manipulated whom ever or what ever they had to so that what they were going to do was justifiable to the public even if it meant twisting or distorting facts so that their facts were the only ones. I keep hoping that some of the people that have been let go within the CIA or FBI start coming publicly forward and telling of all of the lies that B*sh and Co have done!!

[yellowcanine]

31. Well, just in time to ....uh, err......better late than never, I guess.

This may be the exception that proves the rule. What good is this now?

[hector459]

32. But it's ok to say we all were lying because, because Iraqi voted....

it's ok, ok ?

[Rose Siding]

37. Yeah, pretty cagy timing, huh

[daleo]

33. They should add:

Remember this next time, and don't believe us when we make crap up. It's for our own good.

[EST]

34. Sort of like exit polling?

Keep hedging the figures 'til they finally match up.

[katinmn]

35. And should anything they say in the future be trusted?

[radwriter0555]

36. So how come's we knew LONG before the CIA did that Iraq didn't have no

stinkin' WMDS????

Is Democratic Underground's intel BETTER than the CIA??????

[funnymanpants]

38. Freepers still believe in WMDs

According to freepers:

1. The WMDs were shipped to Syria, as David Kay believes

2. The CIA believes that Saddam tried to buy yellowcake from Niger.

3. The 9/11 commission report believes Saddam tried to buy yellowcake from Niger.

4. Iraq was outsourcing its nuclear program to Libya. (A fox analyst said so!)

I got in a long nasty debate on Media Matters who made all these claims. He used editorial pieces from the WSJ and the Weekly Standard to prove his point.

I used the original sources. I showed him, for example, that the 9/11 comission report said *nothing* about Niger. The freeper becames nasty and said he believed the WSJ any day over my interpretation of the facts.

The freeper: "Tell me what Saddam's ministers were doing in Niger if they weren't trying to buy uranium? Tell me that, smart guy? Duh! Obviously he had a nuclear program."

And just imagine how smug the freeper was, so sure he had all the facts at his disposal.

[Carl Brennan]

39. Bush should hire Hans Blix, the UN Weapons

inspector who repeatedly said that there were no WMD's in Iraq.

Or at least Bush should write him a letter humbly apologizing for this unfuckingbelievably monstrous fuckup!!

Then Bush should get down on his knees and beg the loved ones of the dead in Iraq for mercy.

[NashVegas]

40. kick

..

[rainbow4321]

41. CIA Revising Pre-Invasion Iraq Arms Intel

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=513&ncid=691&e=4&u=/ap/20050202/ap_on_go_ot/cia_iraq_weapons


The CIA is preparing retrospective reports to officially revise what proved to be faulty intelligence on Iraq 's weapons capabilities before the 2003 invasion.

Among them is a document no more than a dozen pages entitled "Iraq: No Large-Scale Chemical Warfare Efforts Since Early 1990s," said an intelligence official familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The report concludes that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gave up his chemical weapons program after the 1991 Gulf War.

The Bush administration used the existence of weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological and nuclear weapons — as a leading justification to overthrow the Iraqi government

[Chico Man]

42. Thanks a lot George Orwell

Introducing the memory hole to the masses....

[aquart]

43. I was about to say....

They did this in 1984.

So, it was 20 years late.

[peacetalksforall]

44. Have we passed or are we approaching the point where we will

compliment the record of the USSR in lies, living lies, documented lies.

Hey Bush Cabal! - the people are laughing at you just as they laughed at their 'leaders'.

[theresistance]

45. What a load of bullsh**

from those lying bastards. I'm sorry I sound so mad, but that's how I feel. I've spent around two years documenting the WMD lies and screaming it from the rooftops, but now after they achieve everything (invasion of Iraq) they back-flip. This is bogus!

[Garbo 2004]

48. This is intended to underscore the Bush "faulty intelligence" theme.

"See, it was the CIA that was wrong. Not our fault we relied on them." When actually they ignored anything that didn't support their case for invading Iraq and ran a disinformation campaign to support it. That's my first guess on why this is being leaked.