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

[cal04]

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

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.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and two GOP colleagues on the committee disclosed this information for the first time in the panel's report on Iraq released last week. They wrote in the "additional views" section of the report that the Cabinet-level Iraqi official "said that Iraq has no past, current, or anticipated future contact with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda" and that the official "added that bin Laden was in fact a longtime enemy of Iraq."

On Sept. 25, 2002, just days after the CIA received the source's information, President Bush told reporters: "Al-Qaeda hides. Saddam doesn't, but the danger is, is that they work in concert. The danger is, is that al-Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam's madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world. . . . (Y)ou can't distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror."

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

[rubberducky]

1. Even when it is proven that bush lies

nothing happens. How sick.

[Garbo 2004]

2. That's when Cheney goes on Russert and repeats the lies, which is what

happened in this case as I recall.

[ovidsen]

3. I'm recommending this, and here's why

According to the WaPo story at the link, the CIA source who said that Saddam had no link with Osama or al Qaeda also said that Saddam was actively working on chemical and biological weapons.

The weapons development claim was passed on to the White House. But the no link to Osama assertion was stonewalled!!!!

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 (about WMDs) was immediately passed on to "alert" the president and other senior policymakers, the three Republicans said.

Yet another smoking gun illustrating how intelligence was cherry-picked to support the Iraq invasion. And BAD intelligence at that, since the WMD claim was false. The White House was the final clearing house for information from the CIA, NSA etc. "justifying" the Iraq war. And they used this filter to seduce everyone from Colin Powell to Congress.

They fed us a lie. And they withheld the truth.

I want to see heads roll.