"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Jeff Rigby wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
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Jeff Rigby wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
For years I have been maintaining that the Bush Administration did NOT
let members of Congress see the same intel it had during its buildup
to the war against Iraq.

Now comes an article in the Washington Post that validates my posit:

Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument

By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 12, 2005; A01

President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics
of the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that
Congress saw the same intelligence the administration did before the
war, and that independent commissions have determined that the
administration did not misrepresent the intelligence.

Neither assertion is wholly accurate.

...

But Bush and his aides had access to much more voluminous intelligence
information than did lawmakers, who were dependent on the
administration to provide the material. And the commissions cited by
officials, though concluding that the administration did not pressure
intelligence analysts to change their conclusions, were not authorized
to determine whether the administration exaggerated or distorted those
conclusions.

National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, briefing reporters
Thursday, countered "the notion that somehow this administration
manipulated the intelligence." He said that "those people who have
looked at that issue, some committees on the Hill in Congress, and
also the Silberman-Robb Commission, have concluded it did not happen."

But the only committee investigating the matter in Congress, the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has not yet done its inquiry
into whether officials mischaracterized intelligence by omitting
caveats and dissenting opinions. And Judge Laurence H. Silberman,
chairman of Bush's commission on weapons of mass destruction, said in
releasing his report on March 31, 2005: "Our executive order did not
direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers, and
all of us were agreed that that was not part of our inquiry."

Bush, in Pennsylvania yesterday, was more precise, but he still
implied that it had been proved that the administration did not
manipulate intelligence, saying that those who suggest the
administration "manipulated the intelligence" are "fully aware that a
bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political
pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments."

In the same speech, Bush asserted that "more than 100 Democrats in the
House and the Senate, who had access to the same intelligence, voted
to support removing Saddam Hussein from power." Giving a preview of
Bush's speech, Hadley had said that "we all looked at the same
intelligence."

****But Bush does not share his most sensitive intelligence, such as
the President's Daily Brief, with lawmakers. Also, the National
Intelligence Estimate summarizing the intelligence community's views
about the threat from Iraq was given to Congress just days before the
vote to authorize the use of force in that country.****

In addition, there were doubts within the intelligence community not
included in the NIE. And even the doubts expressed in the NIE could
not be used publicly by members of Congress because the classified
information had not been cleared for release. For example, the NIE
view that Hussein would not use weapons of mass destruction against
the United States or turn them over to terrorists unless backed into a
corner was cleared for public use only a day before the Senate vote.

Harry, the last paragraph says it all, "Saddam won't use the WMD unless
backed into a corner" That statement assumes quite strongly that he
HAS WMD!!!!! Further, history shows us that anyone who opposes him is
a target for WMD (Kurds, Iranians) or assassination (Bush I) so it
means that he fears our retaliation if he uses them against us. If you
remember, our troops, the Israelis and Kuwaitis were issued gas masks
and there were air raid sirens going on and people putting mask on
during the nightly news during the ramp up to the war. So we were
expecting him to use some form of gas attack.

NOT true (subject of this message)

There have been more revelations about the intel the Bush Administration
did not share with Democratic members of Congress. This is another news
story that is going to dog Bush, who is now in the People's Republic of
China to see how many more American jobs he can give away. Or whatever
he is doing over there.

I'd like to see that as I'm under the impression that the President can't
keep Intel from congress, the CIA can reclassify info as eyes only and
make the case that even congress can't see the info but the President
can't keep congress from seeing the Intel (they are co-equal branches of
government. ) As I understand the issue, the intelligence committee then
only allows two members (or fewer members can see the Intel) of the
committee to see the Intel.

The major legit news outlets have been carrying this story for more than a
week. I don't read the Wash Times or watch Faux News, so I have no idea
what the Bush Apology Outlets are saying about this.

Yes Harry I've been hearing about the Democrat Senators saying that they
were not allowed to see some documents that they know about but can't say
what's in them because they don't know about them. Makes sense doesn't it.

There were red flags in the Intel questioning the accuracy of the
information but they were ignored by EVERYONE because we all assumed that he
had WMD, why else would he not allow inspectors, why when there were
inspectors there did we intercept communications from Iraqis to Iraqis
mentioning where the inspectors were going and "Is that site cleaned up
yet". These red flags and dissenting opinions were there for everyone to
read but they were given no weight by EVERYONE. Now Democrats are saying
that they didn't see the dissenting opinions and the select committee is
saying that they were there for the senators to read.

Did you know that Iraq had enough yellow cake for 1.5 nuclear weapons. He
just needed to enrich it (purify using aluminum tubes and a centrifuge).
The resulting bomb would be massive (like our first "big boy") . TO get
weapons grade that can make SMALL nuclear weapons requires a breeder reactor
or advanced (cyclotron sometimes called gas diffusion) enriching. Just
before 9/11 he and others were trying to get under the table access to more
yellow cake.