The US electorate should not have to hear the TRUTH
about the Bush Abomination and its scapegoating of the
CIA from Agence France Press or the British press, you should be hearing it from NotBeSeen (NBC), SeeNotNews (CNN), PrettyBlandStuff (PBS), etc. BUT..It's the Media, Stupid!
AFP: The US intelligence community should not be made
to shoulder full responsibility for misjudging Saddam
Hussein's weapons capability ahead of last year's Iraq
war, British newspapers said after a Senate
investigation exonerated US politicians of blame.
The Financial Times described as "implausible" the investigation's decision to exonerate US President George W. Bush's administration from putting pressure on the intelligence agencies.
"Like all government organizations, the Central
Intelligence Agency devotes its limited resources to
meeting the demands of its political masters," the
business daily said.
It added that it was the "politicians who must account
for the death and destruction of the Iraq war -- and
the consequences as they continue to unfold".
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0710-01.htm
AFP: Published on Saturday, July 10, 2004 by the
Agence France Presse
Politicians Must Not Escape Blame Over Iraq Intel
Errors: British Press
The US intelligence community should not be made to
shoulder full responsibility for misjudging Saddam
Hussein's weapons capability ahead of last year's Iraq
war, British newspapers said after a Senate
investigation exonerated US politicians of blame.
The Financial Times described as "implausible" the
investigation's decision to exonerate US President
George W. Bush's administration from putting pressure
on the intelligence agencies.
"Like all government organizations, the Central
Intelligence Agency devotes its limited resources to
meeting the demands of its political masters," the
business daily said.
It added that it was the "politicians who must account
for the death and destruction of the Iraq war -- and
the consequences as they continue to unfold".
The Times was equally critical of the Senate's
findings.
"The CIA should not take all the blame on Iraq and
WMD," it said.
"Above all, the failure of politicians to ask
sufficiently robust questions about the intelligence
they received should not be forgotten."
A Senate investigation concluded on Friday that the US
intelligence community "mischaracterized" Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction through "a series of
failures".
The inquiry found that the intelligence community's
key judgments were either overstated or not backed up
by intelligence reporting.
The Senate Intelligence Committee found no evidence,
however, that the Bush administration pressured CIA
analysts to modify their judgments of Iraq's WMD.
Britain's press meanwhile looked ahead to an inquiry
into flawed British intelligence on Iraq set to report
next Wednesday.
"If the US Intelligence Committee report is anything
to go by, (Britain's inquiry) will voice important
criticisms but bring us little nearer to understanding
how it all went so wrong and who was responsible," The
Independent said.
The inquiry, called by Prime Minister Tony Blair to
look into the intelligence behind his decision to take
Britain into the Iraq war, is headed by Lord Robin
Butler, a former veteran senior civil servant.
The Butler report "will echo many" of the same
criticisms outlined by the Senate inquiry, the
Financial Times said.
The Daily Telegraph said errors by the CIA "was a
failure shared by anyone who was anyone in the
cloak-and-dagger business. That applies to our own
secret services, too."
A view shard by The Times, which said:
"The CIA depended on other services for inside
information. It is probable that (Britain's foreign
intelligence service) MI6 was one of those
organizations which obtained information that has come
to look dubious."
Such a conclusion next week would bring relief to
Blair, The Daily Telegraph said.
"Tony Blair will no doubt be pleased if the Butler
inquiry... turns out to be as favorable to him as the
report of the Senate Select Committee," it said.
Various findings from the Butler report have been
leaked to the British press over recent days.
A meeting between British government officials in
March 2002, a year before the Iraq war, decided that
available intelligence was not strong enough to
support the case for military action, the report will
say, according to the Financial Times on Saturday.
The report will add that that Britain's Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw overruled senior advisors on the
legality of the Iraq war, London's Evening Standard
said Friday.
The Independent said the inquiry would include
personal criticism of Britain's intelligence chiefs,
including John Scarlett, who since the Iraq war has
been named head of MI6.
© Copyright 2004 AFP
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