"Nightline" to let CIA respond

[gauguin57]

Koppel will interview CIA official re: the intelligence on Iraq. Preview email just came in, and there's no link yet on ABC News Website.

Nightline Daily E-Mail
January 6, 2004

NIGHTLINE: ON THE RECORD: The C.I.A. Defends the Intel on Iraq

TONIGHT'S FOCUS: In the wake of questions about whether the Administration exaggerated and hyped the evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the CIA responds. For the first time, the Central Intelligence Agency gives an extensive, on the record interview regarding the intelligence it provided the White House and Congress in the months before the war with Iraq.

Last year, in the run up to the war with Iraq, the major players in the Bush administration, from the President on down, repeatedly made the argument that the war was necessary because the U.S. had reliable intelligence that Saddam Hussein had extensive weapons of mass destruction. When Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations' Security Council, the Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet sat next to him, an unspoken assurance that the CIA was firmly supportive of the administration's case.

"WMD's" quickly became a household phrase. And when U.S. forces marched into Baghdad, it was only a matter of days before people started to ask: so, where are those WMD's? And now, as the weeks and months have dragged on with no clear evidence of WMD's in Iraq, the questions are focusing on whether the Administration or the intelligence community exaggerated or hyped the case.

Tonight for the first time, a key intelligence official will give an extensive, on-the-record interview on this matter. Ted Koppel will speak with Stuart Cohen, vice-chairman of the National Intelligence Council. A career intelligence officer, Mr. Cohen has served in many key roles in the intelligence community relating to nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

In October of 2002, the National Intelligence Council, under Cohen's leadership, produced a National Intelligence Estimate, an official document requested by a number of senators in the midst of the national and congressional debate about the war against Iraq. At least one senator said the 90-page document convinced her to vote for the war in Iraq.

The Senate and House Intelligence Committees are now reviewing the NIE report, its raw evidence and subsequent analysis. Their reports are scheduled for release later this month, but have already been described in at least one press account as extremely critical of the CIA.

Tonight, in a rare on-camera, on the record interview, a CIA official gets a chance to explain.

We hope you'll join us.

Sara Just and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington bureau

[Caution]

1. Thanks for the heads up

Just went to tivo online and told my tivo to record it. This shoudl be a good one. I'm betting this guy sells out his colleagues and trumpets the BushCo line.

[rfranklin]

3. He wouldn't be on Nightline otherwise....

He's probably a covert operative for the BFEE. That's not for attribution--just say you heard it from an "Administration official."

[Danieljay]

2. Koppel? Dont get your hopes up...I predict

it will be a big disappointment just as the Kean 9-11 interview after CBS revealled it could have been prevented. You can but your sweet pa-toot this guy won't implicate anyone. I hope I'm wrong but I'm not getting my hopes up on this one. The truth is out there, but its doubtful it will be revealled by Ted Koppel. He has no credibility anymore in my opinion, nor does ABC after pulling its reporters from the Kucinich campaign. If Koppel wanted the truth, he'd interview Kucinich.

[0007]

4. Fuck Ted Koppel and his goddamn nightline bullshit!

[xchrom]

5. rat out bushco?!

he saw what happened to wellstone.

[TacticalPeek]

6. Nightline had an excellent roundtable discussion a while back

with several ex-agency types, excoriating the admin over the agent outing.

Emphasis on 'ex-agency'.

If this Cohen is too heavy on the smoke and mirrors, I would not be surprised to see a 'rebuttal' show later.

My questions would be:

Why was the NIE not developed (like an afterthought) until months after Shrub decided to 'take Saddam out', and then only after pressure from Congress?

And why did Senator Graham have to pull teeth to get the last-minute letter from Tenet saying that in effect, Iraq's WMD were not a threat to the US, and were only likely to be a problem if we invaded?

And were any secrecy/clearance regulations violated by having Gingrich, OSP 'contractors'/foreign nationals, etc. traipsing around our intelligence/natsec apparatus, as they pasted together this debacle?

[DrBB]

7. Guy looks like a "team player," there to pour oil

on troubled waters. We're not looking at one of the insiders who's pissed off at the abuse of the CIA. Gonna be all about whether the National Intelligence Estimate mislead the Congress, whether CIA "got it wrong."

Will he bring up the fact that the Chimp didn't WANT the NIE, and that the CIA was compelled to cobble it together in record short time to the specifications handed down from their neocon masters in the WH? I doubt it.

But hey, I hope somebody can come back with a bunch of reasons why I'm dead wrong.

[otohara]

8. Only Those CIA People Who Wern't Fired

are allowed to respond of course. Many who weren't "on board" w/the administration's agenda are long gone.

[mistertrickster]

9. If he spouts the Bush line, he's going to make himself and the whole

"intelligence" agency look like they didn't know crap. Isn't an intelligence agency supposed to have intelligence?

So back Bush up, look like an idiot. Make your entire rasion d' etre
suspect . . . a lot of viewers are going to wonder why we're funding them if they're just full of crap.

On the other hand, if they say they just provided the raw reports and it was Bush et al. who blew it out of proportion, well . . . that might be very interesting.

[jpgray]

10. Doesn't Nightline usually give out hopeful preview emails

And then the actual program turns out to be a sorry disappointment? I've seen a few solid programs, but I'm wary now.

[gauguin57]

11. pretty much party line, so far

Cohen is saying CIA never said "imminent threat" re: nukes ("we leave definitions of imminent threat to the policy makers"), but did feel Saddam had bio and chem weapons, and missles with longer-than-permitted range.

Uh ... so where in the freak are they? Ted's pointing that out ... I haven't heard a satisfactory answer.

[mistertrickster]

12. Yeah, this guy is just sad, isn't he? His "evidence" that they hid

WMD's is that the US forces found computers with "missing hard drives."

Oh my gosh! Missing hard drives! I'm sure no one kept bank records or looters could have taken them looking for finacial account data. No one ever puts any porno or e-mails on a hard drive that they might not want falling into the wrong hands . . . so yeah, it's proof positive of WMD's!

And then when Koppel says, where are the WMD's, this pathetic joke says, "well, we haven't found them yet. They're small, ya know."

So we have an "intelligence agency" that admits that it doesn't really know anything. They're not sure if Iraq had WMD's. If it does have WMD's, they don't know where they are or what they did with them.

In other words, AL QAEDA could have them now, for all we know.

Let's review: the "intelligence" agency has no intelligence that was actually proven true. And we can infer that the war that was instigated on the basis of this "no intelligence" has made the US LESS SAFE by putting the WMD's (if they exist) into who knows whose hands.

These are the people that we pay billions of taxpayer dollars to?

[0007]

15. Before 911, the U.S. paid 30 billion a year

[rman]

13. It'd be interesting to see Tennet, Koppel debate this with the many

recently releaved CIA guys.

[Gin]

14. watched the show...the CIA guy CYA and it was was pathetic

we all know the info was hyped...he is Covering his ass and it shows.