Where does the buck stop?

Following up on yesterday's entry, I found even more documentation that exposes the absurdity of trying to blame the US intelligence establishment for inaccurate information about Weapons of Mass Destruction™ in Iraq. The Center for American Progress has a timeline of statements by the Bush gang regarding Iraq and the responses from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Energy, International Atomic Energy Association, and United Nations. The pattern is clear: every assertion by Bush and his henchman about WMDs in Iraq was quickly and publicly refuted, often by the very intelligence agencies they are now trying to blame for faulty information. Basically they are blaming career intelligence analysts for being right. And here is a Houston Chronicle article, Some administration officials expressing misgivings on Iraq, from October 8, 2002 based on interviews with military and intelligence officers who accuse the adminstration of "cooking the books" on intelligence about Iraq:

They charge that the administration squelches dissenting views and that intelligence analysts are under intense pressure to produce reports supporting the White House's argument that Saddam poses such an immediate threat to the United States that pre-emptive military action is necessary. "Analysts at the working level in the intelligence community are feeling very strong pressure from the Pentagon to cook the intelligence books," said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity. A dozen other officials echoed his views in interviews. No one who was interviewed disagreed.

My personal source in the DIA (who, for his protection, I will not name) put it this way:

They [Rumsfeld's people] would ask us for intelligence, but when we gave it to them they'd say "You're wrong."

Still not convinced? Here's an American Prospect article, The Pentagon Muzzles the CIA from December of 2002 (again, before the war even started):

Even as it prepares for war against Iraq, the Pentagon is already engaged on a second front: its war against the Central Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon is bringing relentless pressure to bear on the agency to produce intelligence reports more supportive of war with Iraq, according to former CIA officials. Key officials of the Department of Defense are also producing their own unverified intelligence reports to justify war. Much of the questionable information comes from Iraqi exiles long regarded with suspicion by CIA professionals. A parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation, in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, collects the information from the exiles and scours other raw intelligence for useful tidbits to make the case for preemptive war. These morsels sometimes go directly to the president.

Finally, consider this. The president of the United States is the head of the executive branch of the government. It is ultimately his responsibility to appoint capable advisors, evaluate the information he is given, and make the final decisions. When Harry Truman became president he put a sign on his desk saying "The Buck Stops Here." George W. Bush seems to be saying "The Buck Stops Anywhere BUT Here." It's time to hold him accountable.
- posted by truthspeaker    Comments