The following is a letter written in response to an Australian newspaper article entitled
"Deciphering subtle truths in secret world of spy-speak." In particular I address this comment that:
Intelligence agencies will be criticised for shifting their position. But sensibly, when new information is obtained, the picture should be changed. Ignoring contrary evidence leads to intelligence failures, most famously the claims about Saddam Hussein's stockpiles of biological weapons. Mr Flitton, in your article about the revised intelligence on Iran you refer briefly to the Iraq War "intelligence failures" implying the intelligence agencies got it wrong and made errors when they "ignored" the contrary evidence in relation to WMDs.
I take issue with your version of events here. It appears you have fallen victim to the "intelligence failure" meme- a discourse not based on facts but on White House talking points.
Rather than being "mistaken," the truth of the matter is the intelligence was DELIBERATELY altered by neoconservative officials and their supporters according to a pre-determined political decision to go to war with Iraq. (I cite the Downing Street Memos, the Dodgy Dossier and Richard Clarke's testimony concerning Rumsfeld's reaction to the 911 attack - to pin this on Iraq- as key evidence.)
You must realise that the neoconservatives in power at the time of 911 had been wanting to attack Iraq since the end of the 1st Gulf War. Thanks to September 11 they got their opportunity to steamroll any opposition to the pre-emptive war doctrine and sideline the cooler heads in the State Department and Pentagon.
After 911 there was a heinous manipulation of the Intelligence to suit the new agenda. Highly dubious or outright false "intelligence" on Iraq's WMDs- material that would ordinarily have been discarded- was given top billing by the White House. Information was cherry picked, through the neocon run Office of Special Plans set up inside the Pentagon, in order to fit the WMD war agenda.
At the CIA Director George Tenet pandered to White House directives with similarly doctored collations of WMD "evidence". Alterations here were made at the top level based on political pressure. Take the UN speech made by Colin Powell. Tenet in the background nods his head but every core piece of analysis in that address was erroneous.
For example we know that many nuclear experts at the time considered the aluminium tubes, originally claimed to be for nuclear centrifuges, were not of sufficient quality for the task and were more than likely purchased for use in Rocket Artillery. Analysis such as this was deliberately suppressed in order to make it seem as if the tubes could only have been part of an active nuclear program. Powell's claim that most US experts agreed with his position were outright lies.
In considering the Iraq WMD "intelligence failure" as a whole, we should ask former Australian intelligence analyst Andrew Wilkie whether the raw intelligence actually supported the case of Iraq's imminent threat. Wilkie quit in protest before the war on the basis that there was no case to be made for attacking Iraq.
Similarly in the alternative media, we find that the US Knight Ridder news agency reported (before the war) that the intelligence used to justify Saddam's WMD aspirations was highly contentious, if not false.
There was no intelligence failure, only a political effort to push faked and misleading information to the public in order to justify a war.
Despite criticism in certain quarters (notably Joseph Wilson's refutation of the Niger Uranium transaction) the White House fabrications found good traction with the cheer leading US corporate media which hyped these lies in a patriotic rush to defend the US against terrorist threats. Almost all notions of critical review, fact checking and research with regard to White House WMD claims were thrown out the window.
The detail about accepting the "faulty intelligence" line is extremely important because it deflects responsibility away from those who initiated a war that has brought death to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Coalition troops.
The War in Iraq was completely unnecessary and to imply that it came about through an intelligence "mistake" only perpetuates the lie and protects the criminals who recklessly told these lies. Please revise your position on this matter.
There will be no justice and more wars if we continue to let the neoconservative war architects get away with murder.
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell and were poised for their first fourth-quarter decline since 2000 after government reports on durable goods and unemployment reinforced speculation the housing-market collapse will push the economy into recession.
