When it doesn’t rain it pours as far as the revelations of growing mendacity on the part of the Bush Administration regarding its “case for war” against Iraq. The latest shibboleth to fall is the claim that Saddam forged an alliance with Al Qaeda–that somehow Saddam had something to do with 9/11. That’s right it was all a tissue of lies (this is reported by the NY Times):
A top member of Al Qaeda in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
The document…said it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, “was intentionally misleading the debriefers’…
The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi’s credibility. Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi’s information as “credible’’ evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.
Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that “we’ve learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases”…
Mr. Powell relied heavily on accounts provided by Mr. Libi for his speech to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, saying that he was tracing “the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to Al Qaeda.’’
These guys have to be some of the lamest political leaders this country has seen in decades if not longer. Who in their right mind bases a significant argument for a major policy on a figure your own intelligence agency (in this case, Don Rumsfeld’s own DIA fer chrissakes!) doesn’t trust? Can you impeach somebody for sheer incompetence? Yes, this rises above incompetence because when people tell you something is false and you persist in parroting it to the American people as truth–that’s far worse.
Those on the right will say that there were so many conflicting pieces of intelligence and the Bush Administration relied on its best judgment in determining what was true and valid. If you advance that argument then tell me one thing: where is the evidence that this guy WAS credible? Show me a single scintilla of support for his veracity from any source (other than the aforesaid members of the Administration). The Times article goes on to say that as an “official intelligence report” the DIA document would have circulated widely throughout the Bush Administration (including through the hands of all individuals named above who later based false claims based upon the account).
Here’s why the DIA doubted the informant’s information:
Mr. Libi’s claims lacked specific details about the Iraqis involved, the illicit weapons used and the location where the training was to have taken place…
“Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest.”
The same report goes on to debunk the very notion that Saddam would take up with Al Qaeda:
“Saddam’s regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary movements,’’ the D.I.A. report said in one of two declassified paragraphs. “Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a group it cannot control.’’
This makes Cheney, Bush, Powell and Rice look like utter fools.
