:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 7.09.2004 ::

:: The Case for War update ::

Report: War Rationale Based on CIA Error

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a scathing indictment of the nation's intelligence services, a Senate report concluded Friday the CIA provided false and unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration relied on to justify going to war.

Following release of the findings of a yearlong inquiry by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the panel's Republican chairman said Congress might not have approved the Iraq war had lawmakers known the truth.

The committee's top Democrat said he had no doubt: There resolution authorizing war would not have gotten the sweeping approval, if the threat had been understood.

The report, which was highly critical of departing Director George Tenet, said the CIA kept key information from its own and other agencies' analysts, engaged in "group think" by failing to challenge the assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and allowed President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to make false statements.

"Most, if not all of these problems, stem from a broken corporate culture and poor management" - which won't be fixed simply by giving the agency more money or people, the report said.

Although senators from both parties agreed in harshly criticizing the CIA, Democrats and Republicans clashed over whether Bush administration officials had pressured intelligence analysts to overplay the Iraq threat. Democrats said there was pressure; Republicans said there were tough questions but no inappropriate influence.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 7:24:00 PM [+] ::
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