[ExI] Unjustified invasion of Iraq

[Richard Loosemore]

F. C. Moulton wrote:
> I have changed the Subject since we have long ago ended movie reviews.
> 
> I hope the historians are working on determining what actually happened
> in the lead up to the Iraq invasion.  Certainly various journalists have
> started to weigh in on the issue.  One work I listened to as an audio
> book is The Dark Side by Jane Mayer.  It has been a year or so since I
> listened to it but my overall reaction was one of disgust at the level
> of duplicity and mendacity by Bush/Cheney and many of their hand picked
> minions.
> 
> The point about Tenet is that even if Saddam was bluffing it was Tenet's
> job to know it.  As far as I am concerned Tenet has virtually no
> credibility.

You have to be very careful with historical details here.

I recall very clearly that there was a point, early on, when Bush was 
beating on the drum to try to get everyone to agree that there were WMD 
over in Iraq, and the CIA produced a quiet assessment which surprised a 
lot of people:  Tenet said to a House committee that he didn't really 
see much evidence pointing in that direction.  The communist american 
media such as NPR ;-) made a point of noticing this.

Then there was a report that Tenet had been called for urgent 
discussions at the White House.

Then, a week or two later Tenet suddenly announced (as if the earlier 
comments had never even existed) that the CIA was convinced that Iraq 
had WMD.

The media (apart from the ultra-communist, subsidized-by-Libya, pinko 
(did I say that already? ;-) ) Democracy Now) then just went along with 
the charade and made no further comment on the volte-face.

I don't hold candle for Tenet.  But frankly I think he started out being 
pretty honest.  And a lot of people inside the CIA were apeshit furious 
about the official CIA line, all the way through the run up to the war.



Richard Loosemore