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the NIE that was delivered was. I wouldn't have voted for it - but I was pretty stunned to read that the NIE that had been prepared and the one delivered to congress was different - the one delivered to congress had been stripped of all of the intelligence communities caveats (as in x or y hasn't been confirmed, or q was from a source considered unreliable...) The document, apparently, was frightening. In the post 911 (just one year earlier) moment - some folks who had been against it were greatly manipulated by the intel briefings sent to congress.
During the senate hearings into pre-war intel (that refused to look at the political origins) - there was one brief questioning session that inquired into the two NIEs - and asked WHO was responsible for the changes in the document.
While it doesn't change my stand, and I am critical of some who voted - and then later kept supporting their vote - I do understand how some changed their vote. AND I wish that they would speak out more and push that little bit of info out there as it totally blows away the now recurring GOP spin that "EVERYONE, Dems and REpubs" thought that Iraq had WMDs. Because folks thought it due to the intentional deception of THIS WH. The intel the WH had was vastly different than what was delivered to Congress. Get the public to recognize that - and the public will stop swallowing the whole...the intel was wrong, woops, excuse.
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