From the New York Times:
The Central Intelligence Agency was told by relatives of Iraqi scientists before the war that Baghdad's programs to develop unconventional weapons had been abandoned, but the C.I.A. failed to give that information to President Bush, even as he publicly warned of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's illicit weapons, according to government officials.
The existence of a secret prewar C.I.A. operation to debrief relatives of Iraqi scientists — and the agency's failure to give their statements to the president and other policymakers — has been uncovered by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The panel has been investigating the government's handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq's unconventional weapons and plans to release a wide-ranging report this week on the first phase of its inquiry. The report is expected to contain a scathing indictment of the C.I.A. and its leaders for failing to recognize that the evidence they had collected did not justify their assessment that Mr. Hussein had illicit weapons.
Matt's Chat
This doesn't really jive with the fact that we have found WMD's in Iraq...but it certainly blasts a big hole in the Hamster Myth of "Bush Lied"; not that they'll issue corrections or anything...Mark's Remarks
Of course not, because they will continue to use the hyperbolic statement "it happened on Bush's watch." Well, libs, the President cannot act (or decide against acting) if he does not get correct information. We should, instead of villifying the President for making assessments based on his information, we should instead be asking former Director Tenet why he schemed in this manner (if it is true). But, of course, the libs will say Tenet was only doing what he could to please the President, of course, it doesn't matter that Tenet is not a Bushie but was in fact a CLINTON appointee. Of course, to the 'it happened on his watch' people it does not matter that the first trade center boming, the Cole, the Khobar Towers, all of those and more happened on CLINTON'S watch. Why aren't we villifying him and sanctioning him? Why isn't he being called inept and pompous and evil? Hmmm....where is the objectivity? Where is the fairness? Oh wait, I forgot, Liberals idea of fairness is duct taping and legislating conservatives' voices shut.
