CIA Learned in '02 That Bin Laden Had No Iraq Ties, Report Says

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401545.html

CIA Learned in '02 That Bin Laden Had No Iraq Ties, Report Says

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006; Page A14

The CIA learned in late September 2002 from a high-level member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle that Iraq had no past or present contact with Osama bin Laden and that the Iraqi leader considered bin Laden an enemy of the Baghdad regime, according to a recent Senate Intelligence Committee report.

Although President Bush and other senior administration officials were at that time regularly linking Hussein to al-Qaeda, the CIA's highly sensitive intelligence supporting the contrary view was apparently not passed on to the White House or senior Bush policymakers.

...

According to the three Republicans, the CIA said it did not disseminate the intelligence about the lack of a Hussein-bin Laden connection because "it did not provide anything new."

But other information obtained at the same time from the same source that paralleled what administration officials were saying was immediately passed on to "alert" the president and other senior policymakers, the three Republicans said. A "highly restricted intelligence report" conveyed the source's claim that although Iraq had no nuclear weapon, Hussein was covertly developing one and had stockpiled chemical weapons, according to the committee members.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said he could not provide additional information about the situation beyond what is in the Senate report, but he added that "the agency's decisions to disseminate intelligence are not guided by political considerations."

[joemurphy]

1. "A man hears what he wants to hear and he disregards the rest."

Paul Simon - "The Boxer"

Our Prez and Dick Cheney wouldn't have paid it any mind even if it had been passed on.

And tell George Tenet that "CIA decisions to disseminate intelligence are not guided by political considerations."

[clmbohdem]

2. To this day I don't get Tenet's motive for this crime.

Nor Powell. Most everyone else I can figure out.

[Old and In the Way]

5. I wonder, too.

Blackmail? I don't know why this administration didn't scapegoat Tenet immediately after 9/11...he was a Clinton appointtee, afterall. Surely after the bad intel on Iraqi WMD, right? But they didn't. Even gave him a Mefal of Freedom when he left.

I can only surmise a miniMAD scenario was in play. Both Tenet and this administration had stuff that could nuke the other.

[LynnTheDem]

3. Oh gawd, everyone with any brain in the entire world knew Hussein and OBL

were total ENEMIES.

OBL offered to kill Hussein, for fuck's sake.

Hussein was an "infidal".

But GEORGE W. bUSH took care of OBL's enemy!

OBL loves ya, bush!

Stupid MFer.

[librechik]

4. page A14?

old news gets the back pages

[texpatriot2004]

6. Sounds about right nm

[PSPS]

7. Note the byline:

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 15, 2006; Page A14

Yes, it's the Friday dump with extra "bury the story in the back" sauce!

[never cry wolf]

8. Oh christ, I thought maye we'd have ONE non whitewash report

The CIA did not disseminate it... what BS... so lil miss bunnypants is blameless and those damn incompetents in intel are to blame once again....

no one could have imagined a secular dictator and a religious extremist rebel would be like oil and water.........

go figure........

[texasleo]

9. I love these friday stories

:eyes:


Why doesn't the media do its job Monday - Thursday?

[Jack Rabbit]

10. September 2002

This was around the time the Big Dick and Scooter were making regular trips to Langley, in order to tell analysts to write what they wanted to read. It goes without saying that if the Big Dick and Scooter knew this, they wanted to make sure it didn't get passed to the White House.

Anyway, this should be the subject of a Congressional investigation. Why wasn't this information passed to the White House. It will be interesting to see how much Congressional findings resemble the theory I just presented.

[progressoid]

11. No shit?

[PurityOfEssence]

12. Bullshit. I don't believe for a second that they weren't told

The administration was positively rabid to go after Hussein and they would have been all over the intelligence community for any information about him. Somehow we're supposed to believe that Cheney didn't glean this information on one of his many trips to Langley?