Quote:
|
Originally Posted by aceventura3
Do you think Powell lied? Do you think Tenet lied, or sat back and was silent while others lied based on data from the CIA?
|
Yes....Powelll cherry-picked the intelligence and you only need to look at Tenet's declassifed NIE provided to Congress (below)
Quote:
|
Why didn't someone in Congress insist upon looking at the intelligence before voting?
|
Under the current national security laws, most members of Congress are not authorized to look at the classfied NIE..only the Intel Committees have access.
Congress must, by default rely on the truthfulness of the CIA and WHite House.
And the Dems on the Intel Committee demanded that a declassifed version be provided to the full Congress prior to the vote. Here is what they got:
Quote:
Graham and Durbin had been demanding for more than a month that the CIA produce an NIE on the Iraqi threat--a summary of the available intelligence, reflecting the judgment of the entire intelligence community--and toward the end of September, it was delivered. Like Tenet's earlier letter, the classified NIE was balanced in its assessments. Graham called on Tenet to produce a declassified version of the report that could guide members in voting on the resolution. Graham and Durbin both hoped the declassified report would rebut the kinds of overheated claims they were hearing from administration spokespeople. As Durbin tells TNR, "The most frustrating thing I find is when you have credible evidence on the intelligence committee that is directly contradictory to statements made by the administration."
On October 1, 2002, Tenet produced a declassified NIE. But Graham and Durbin were outraged to find that it omitted the qualifications and countervailing evidence that had characterized the classified version and played up the claims that strengthened the administration's case for war. For instance, the intelligence report cited the much-disputed aluminum tubes as evidence that Saddam "remains intent on acquiring" nuclear weapons. And it claimed, "All intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons and that these tubes could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program"--a blatant mischaracterization. Subsequently, the NIE allowed that "some" experts might disagree but insisted that "most" did not, never mentioning that the DOE's expert analysts had determined the tubes were not suitable for a nuclear weapons program. The NIE also said that Iraq had "begun renewed production of chemical warfare agents"--which the DIA report had left pointedly in doubt. Graham demanded that the CIA declassify dissenting portions.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security...630selling.htm
|
Quote:
|
If I have pieces of conflicting information and I make a judgement to use the pieces that support a certain action, and then I make a public statement indicating that I have information supporting that action, how is that a lie?
|
At the very least, it is a lie of omission...when a President is asking Congress to vote on putting American lives on the line and asking the American people to support such an action, the people deserve to know all the facts and findings from the NIE...not just those that support the President's position