Scotty McClellan just set off my BS detector:
Quote:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nation...nate_Iraq.html
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 · Last updated 9:11 a.m. PT
White House deflects intel questions
By LIZ SIDOTI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The White House sought to deflect politically charged questions Wednesday about President Bush's use of prewar intelligence in Iraq, saying Democrats, too, had concluded Saddam Hussein was a threat.
"If Democrats want to talk about the threat that Saddam Hussein posed and the intelligence, they might want to start with looking at the previous administration and their own statements that they've made," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
He said the Clinton administration and fellow Democrats "used the intelligence to come to the same conclusion that Saddam Hussein and his regime were a threat."...........
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How does Scotty's attempt to deflect criticism of the "fixing of the facts to match the policy", square with these quotes and timeline?
The first statment was made by the Clinton administration's CIA director, just three weeks after Clinton's term ended. I infer from this that it represents the final intelligence assessment of the Clinton presidency, with regard to the threat posed by Saddam:
Quote:
<b>Tenet Feb. 7, 2001:
".... and his ability to project power outside of Iraq's borders is severely limited, largely because of the effectiveness and the enforcement of the no-fly zones.His military is roughly half the size it was before the gulf war and remains under a tight embargo.</b>
http://www.usembassy.it/file2001_02/alia/a1020708.htm
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Seventeen days later, newly appointed Secretary of State, Colin Powell, voiced the same conclusion.
Quote:
Powell Feb. 24, 2001:
"And frankly, they have worked. He has not developed any signifigant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors"
http://www.state.gov/secretary/forme...s/2001/933.htm
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Seven months after that, NSA Director Condi Rice, concurred:
Quote:
Rice July 29, 2001:
"But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember, his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP.../29/le.00.html
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Oh....and Scotty, et al...the reason people fell for the crap about Iraqi WMD that the administration that you are shilling for constantly spewed out from Aug. 2002 until early 2004 is because your guys worked at it.....hard:
Quote:
http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...235395,00.html
May 5, 2002
............Hawks like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Defense Policy Board chief Richard Perle strongly believe that after years of American sanctions and periodic air assaults, the Iraqi leader is weaker than most people believe. Rumsfeld has been so determined to find a rationale for an attack that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to the terror attacks of Sept. 11. The intelligence agency repeatedly came back empty-handed. The best hope for Iraqi ties to the attack — a report that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official in the Czech Republic — was discredited last week...............
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Quote:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/...mep.saddam.tm/
First Stop, Iraq
By Michael Elliott and James Carney
Monday, March 24, 2003 Posted: 5:49 PM EST (2249 GMT)
How did the U.S. end up taking on Saddam? The inside story of how Iraq jumped to the top of Bush's agenda -- and why the outcome there may foreshadow a different world order
"F___ Saddam. we're taking him out." Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. Senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant, and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase.
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Time after time, when confronted by the "record" on these threads, one side consistantly falls silent............
Quote:
You wave your hand and they scatter like crows
-Tom Waits
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