8/20 CIA Evidence not Supporting Iraq Attack, so Bushies Create Their Own Intel Agency
Corruption/Conflicts of Interest, Iraq, Proven Wrong| 1 Comment »Team Proven to be Wrong on Iraq / al Qaeda Link Was Once Touted by Cheney as “the best” Source for Such Info
2002: A meeting is held today in an attempt to resolve differences between the CIA and a special intelligence unit created within the Pentagon. While the CIA is skeptical about al Qaeda-Saddam ties, the Pentagon unit, with close ties to Bush administration officials, is pushing ‘evidence’ of such a link.
In the end, no significant relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam was found. Indeed, a Senate Intelligence Committee found that Saddam had ordered members of his government to have no contact with al Qaeda.
The Defense Dept. inspector general would later investigate this Pentagon group, concluding in 2007 that its use of intelligence on Iraq was “dubious” and “inappropriate”. Thomas Gimble, acting Pentagon inspector general, would say that respected U.S. intelligence agencies “disagreed with more than 50 percent” of the group’s findings.
Still, the team’s frequently flawed, yet invasion-supporting analysis of pre-war Iraq found a receptive ear at the Bush White House. Vice President Dick Cheney once called the discredited group the “best source” for understanding the al Qaeda-Saddam relationship.
U.S.-Led Iraq Interim Gov’t Lost Track of Almost $9 Billion
2004: Fox News reports that an audit by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq will report that the CPA cannot account for almost $9 billion. The audit finds that thousands of ghost employees were on the payrolls of Iraqi ministries under CPA control. For example, in one instance the CPA paid for 8,206 guards but only 603 people could be counted performing the work.
Second Iraqi Governor is Killed In Two Weeks’ Time While Bush Boasts of “progress being made”
2007: The governor of one Iraq province is blown up today by a roadside bomb, the second provincial governor to be killed in two weeks‘ time. Also today, a high-level government official, and five bodyguards were kidnapped off a Baghdad street by a force driving eight SUVs. Just the week before five high-level officials of the Oil Ministry were kidnapped.
President Bush will say tomorrow, “I made a decision to send more troops into Iraq to provide enough security for reconciliation to have the time to take place. It appears to me … there is some progress being made. In other words, one aspect of my decision is working.”
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) will point out the costs: “In the eight months since President Bush announced the surge, we have spent tens of billions of dollars, over 700 American servicemen and women have sacrificed their lives, and nearly 4,400 have been wounded”.





