Cheney continued to insist on the Iraq/al'Q connection during the same week that the investigation into the use of intelligence following 9/11 was declassified.
Link
Quote:
Pentagon Officer Created Phony Intel on Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
By Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 06 April 2007
Newly released documents confirm that a Pentagon unit knowingly cooked up intelligence claiming a direct link between Iraq and al-Qaeda in order to win support for a preemptive strike against the country.
A report prepared by the Defense Department's Inspector General for Carl Levin, the Democratic Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, explicitly shows how former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith used his Defense Department position to cook intelligence claiming a connection between the terrorist organization and Saddam Hussein's regime.
The Inspector General's report, "Review of the Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy," focuses specifically on Feith's intelligence gathering operations in the months prior to the March 2003 invasion. An executive summary of the report was declassified in February. The full report was declassified and released Thursday at Levin's request.
"It is important for the public to see why the Pentagon's inspector general concluded that Secretary Feith's office 'developed, produced and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaeda relationship,' which included 'conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community,' and why the Inspector General concluded that these actions were 'inappropriate,'" Levin said. "Until today, those details were classified and outside the public's view."
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For those who may be unfamiliar with Douglas Feith, he is a major player with the neocons and supporter of PNAC. Cheney was crazy like a fox to continue his Iraq/al'Q soundbite because that appears to be the attention span of a large number of Americans.
'Inappropriate' is when I let slip a swear word in from of my granddaughter. I would think creating false intelligence to build support for a preemptive war to be far more serious. I wonder what consequences will follow; a five-minute timeout, perhaps?