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Subject: Debunking Prewar Intelligence Falsehoods
Debunking Prewar Intelligence Falsehoods
By Andrew Seifter, Media Matters for America
Posted on November 16, 2005, Printed on November 16, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/28308/(read more here)
In recent days, conservatives have pushed two principal falsehoods -- echoed
by President Bush in a November 11 speech and uncritically reported in
mainstream news reports -- to rebut Democratic criticism that the White House
manipulated intelligence to build the case for war in Iraq.
First, conservatives have claimed that the White House's Democratic critics
saw the same intelligence as the Bush administration and similarly concluded
that Iraq was a significant threat. Second, the administration's defenders have
conflated two issues: whether the administration pressured intelligence
analysts to produce intelligence supporting its case for war, and whether the
administration manipulated or cherry-picked the intelligence it received.
By conflating the two questions in news reports, the media have advanced the
Bush administration's line that several government inquiries have already
cleared the administration of both pressuring intelligence agencies and
manipulating intelligence. In fact, Media Matters for America has debunked each of these
claims, documenting that:
The White House had access to intelligence that was unavailable to Congress
and began making claims about the Iraqi threat months before Congress received
any substantial intelligence analysis; and;
while several reports found that analysts felt no "pressure" from senior
policy-makers in reaching their intelligence assessments -- a conclusion that has
since been challenged by several senior intelligence officials -- no
government entity has thus far investigated and reported on whether Bush administration
officials manipulated that intelligence once they received it.
Falsehood #1: White House, congressional Dems saw "same intelligence"
When Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) forced the Senate into closed
session November 2 and demanded a pledge that the Senate Intelligence
Committee complete its investigation into whether the Bush administration manipulated
intelligence in the run-up to the war, numerous White House officials and
conservative media figures responded that both the White House and Congress
possessed the same flawed reports and came to the same incorrect conclusions, as
Media Matters has documented.
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