Quote:
Originally posted by goBigtime
The bottom line with the "intelligence" is:
they interpreted it, and acted upon it the way they wanted to for their agenda.
No big secret there at this point.
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Intelligence collections are analyzed by the intel analyists and much of it is an interpretive art and not a science...and there ususally is never a 100% consensus among the analylists from the bottom to the top. The job of the intel agencies...as explained by the acting DCI in a hearing before Congress just a few days ago...is to pass along to the President as well as other parties that are privy to the information...which includes the House and Senate Intel committees...the consensus report of the analyists and the desenting comments of the analyists as well. It then is in the hands of the Administration as well as Congress to make their own interpretations of the information that has been proivided to them. Congressional Intel committees were privy to the same intel that was provided to the President and the Congress consenually agreed that based upon the intel Iraq possessed WMD's/WMD materials. FYI General Tommy Franks believed the intel that was provided to him.
It is a...now known...fact that the consensus intel was incorrect...and this has been confessed to by the involved intel agencies. The reason provided for this is...the intel agencies started off with a wrong assumption (based primarily upon the reports of the original inspectors when they left Iraq...I believe in '98). Having started off with a wrong assumption...every bit of intel that seemed to support the wrong assumption was used to enforce the wrong assumption. A major SNAFU syndrome.