Bush Administration and Manipulating Intelligence

Murray Waas in The National Journal last week wrote about a Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel. On Sep 21, 2001 Bush got a report that there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks or to Al Qaeda, on the contrary, Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as a threat. And since then nothing has come to light to contradict that original report.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked for the document and othes, but true to form the Bush administration has refused to turn them over. How can it be that they say Congess has the same intelligence reports as the White House as they refuse to give congress intelligence reports? Why can't the press come out and say "you're lying"?

On December 9, 2001, Cheney said on NBC's Meet the Press: "[I]t's pretty well confirmed that [Mohammed Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in [the Czech Republic] last April, several months before the attack." Cheney continued to make the charge, even after he was briefed, according to government records and officials, that both the CIA and the FBI discounted the possibility of such a meeting. Credit card and phone records appear to demonstrate that Atta was in Virginia Beach, Va., at the time of the alleged meeting. Really if this isn't manipulating, then what is?

In Rolling Stone, James Bamford (author of The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets) writes about The Rendon Group. They're credited with creating the Iraqi National Congress (INC) in the early 90s to oppose Saddam. More recently the Bush administration hired them to run the propaganda war.

Never before in history had such an extensive secret network been established to shape the entire world's perception of a war. "It was not just bad intelligence -- it was an orchestrated effort," says Sam Gardner, a retired Air Force colonel who has taught strategy and military operations at the National War College. "It began before the war, was a major effort during the war and continues as post-conflict distortions." Just great.

And if you think it's some rogue group in the administration doing this stuff, nope. Cheney's office controls everything. He just might be a Sith Lord after all.