CTC Iraqi Support for Terrorism

January 29, 2003

"There have been fewer reports of al-Qa'ida receiving conventional terrorist

training from Iraq after Bin Ladin relocated to Afghanistan in 1996, possibly

because Bin Ladin's needs were less in this area."

"/Deleted/ of the reports are simple declarative accusations of Iraqi-al-Qa'ida

complicity with no substantiating detail or other information that might help us

corroborate them."

Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984

February 25, 2003

False trails that lead to the al-Qaeda 'links'

February 2, 2003

Not really intelligence, but intelligent, nonetheless.

Just Tell Us The Truth

April 6, 2003

What I Didn't Find in Africa

July 6, 2003

Joseph Wilson's column concerning the false Niger yellowcake sales, originally published in the New York Times.

This sparked off the Valerie Plame leak case, in which Wilson's wife was outed as an undercover CIA agent by someone in government to the press - which ended up published by Robert Novak. From what we know, the White House was spamming Valerie Plame's name to every two-bit MSM stenographer to come within earshot. Novak took the bait - now he works for Fox News (just desserts?). Scooter Libby got indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. The outcome remains to be seen.

The spies who pushed for war

July 17, 2003

"Julian Borger reports on the shadow rightwing intelligence network set up in Washington

to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force"

White House Faulted on Uranium Claim

December 24, 2003

The shocking thing about this story is that it comes from the President's own Foreign Intelligence

Advisory Board, which he stacked full of cronies -- lots of corporate executives that surely wouldn't

abuse their privileged access to the topmost level of national secrets.

"The White House later said the claim should not have been made, after reports that the intelligence

community expressed doubts it was true. After reviewing the matter for several months, the intelligence

board -- chaired by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft -- has determined that there was

"no deliberate effort to fabricate" a story, the source said. Instead, the source said, the board

believes the White House was so anxious "to grab onto something affirmative" about Hussein's nuclear

ambitions that it disregarded warnings from the intelligence community that the claim was questionable."

Weird. I kind of assume that if you're anxious to grab onto something affirmative and you disregard

warnings then that seems like a pretty deliberate effort. Whoops! I accidentally ignored my duty to

listen to good intelligence because I was overeager to push a war -- totally wasn't my fault. I was

excited.

FBI Probes Fake Evidence of Iraqi Nuclear Plans

13 March 2003

By Dana Priest and Susan Schmidt

The Lies We Bought

by John R. Macarthur