According to the invaluable Bob Drogin, U.S. intelligence in Iraq before the war was not very good. That may sound like old news, but Drogin has details. Let's start with this one:
U.S. experts, for example, still have not been able to determine the meaning of three secretly taped conversations that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell played to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003 in making the case for war. Investigators have been unable to identify who was speaking on the tapes or precisely what they were talking about.
U.S. analysts also erred in their analysis of high-altitude satellite photos, repeatedly confusing Scud missile storage places with the short, half-cylindrical sheds typically used to house poultry in Iraq.As a result, as the war neared, two teams of U.N. weapons experts acting on U.S. intelligence scrambled to search chicken coops for missiles that were not there.
Remember, we've known for a long time that our human intel in Iraq sucked, but the technical intel, like satellite photos and communications intercepts, are the things we're supposedly good at. Think again. (But Colin Powell sure sounded pretty confident about those tapes and photos a year ago, didn't he?)
And then there's this little gem. What happened to loyal-but-ethical David Kay when he came home from Iraq and told everyone there were no WMDs?
CIA leaders refused to accept Kay's stark assessment when he returned from Iraq last December that most prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons were wrong. Kay was assigned a tiny office far from the executive suites, without a working computer or secure telephone.
Is there anyone left in the entire upper reaches of the Bush administration who has any contact with reality these days?
Well, there's always the possibility the photos showed clearly that the buildings were chicken coops based on the heaps of chicken shit outside. But Powell and crew, being kicked from behind by Rummy and the neocons, decided they could slide it on by.
Some other possibilities here: 1) Chicken coops of mass destruction. (Ever smell the inside of a chicken barn at 100F?) 2) Dual use chicken coops that can be missile silos. 3) Chicken coops deliberately chosen to confuse American satellite analysts.
I actually kind of believe 3)
Chicken wings of mass destruction. Where's Monty Python when you need them?
Too bad reality has revealed the truth. That's why the administration works so hard to make sure nobody has any contact with reality.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The following is the text of the letter from President Bush to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate. It was sent Wednesday.
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:
(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and
(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Sincerely,
GEORGE W. BUSH
Two words...Impeachable offense....
It's time to realize that the BUSH family had a closer "relationship" with al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden than Saddam Hussein. They've all been in business with Bin Ladens for decades. Financial entanglements up the wazoo.
Too bad reality has revealed the truth. That's why the administration works so hard to make sure nobody has any contact with reality.