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ORIGINAL: Level

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and his top policymakers misstated Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq's arms programs as they made a case for war, the Senate intelligence committee reported on Thursday.

The report shows an administration that "led the nation to war on false premises," said the committee's Democratic Chairman, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia. Several Republicans on the committee protested its findings as a "partisan exercise."

The committee studied major speeches by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials in advance of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and compared key assertions with intelligence available at the time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080605/pl_nm/iraq_usa_intelligence_dc

Search the Internet for "Bush Lied" products, and you will find sites that offer more than a thousand designs. The basic "Bush Lied, People Died" bumper sticker is only the beginning.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, set out to provide the official foundation for what has become not only a thriving business but, more important, an article of faith among millions of Americans. And in releasing a committee report Thursday, he claimed to have accomplished his mission, though he did not use the L-word.

"In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent," he said.

...

But dive into Rockefeller's report, in search of where exactly President Bush lied about what his intelligence agencies were telling him about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and you may be surprised by what you find.

On Iraq's nuclear weapons program? The president's statements "were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates."

On biological weapons, production capability and those infamous mobile laboratories? The president's statements "were substantiated by intelligence information."

On chemical weapons, then? "Substantiated by intelligence information."

On weapons of mass destruction overall (a separate section of the intelligence committee report)? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information." Delivery vehicles such as ballistic missiles? "Generally substantiated by available intelligence." Unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to deliver WMDs? "Generally substantiated by intelligence information."

As you read through the report, you begin to think maybe you've mistakenly picked up the minority dissent. But, no, this is the Rockefeller indictment. So, you think, the smoking gun must appear in the section on Bush's claims about Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to terrorism.

But statements regarding Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information." Statements that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda "were substantiated by the intelligence assessments," and statements regarding Iraq's contacts with al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence information." The report is left to complain about "implications" and statements that "left the impression" that those contacts led to substantive Iraqi cooperation.

In the report's final section, the committee takes issue with Bush's statements about Saddam Hussein's intentions and what the future might have held. But was that really a question of misrepresenting intelligence, or was it a question of judgment that politicians are expected to make?

After all, it was not Bush, but Rockefeller, who said in October 2002: "There has been some debate over how 'imminent' a threat Iraq poses. I do believe Iraq poses an imminent threat. I also believe after September 11, that question is increasingly outdated. . . . To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? I do not think we can."

Rockefeller was reminded of that statement by the committee's vice chairman, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), who with three other Republican senators filed a minority dissent that includes many other such statements from Democratic senators who had access to the intelligence reports that Bush read. The dissenters assert that they were cut out of the report's preparation, allowing for a great deal of skewing and partisanship, but that even so, "the reports essentially validate what we have been saying all along: that policymakers' statements were substantiated by the intelligence."

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ORIGINAL: Focus50

but in this case, it's also about family; that daddy fucked up and sonny was in a position to fix it, albeit with a little fabricated justification....
 

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ORIGINAL: kittinSol

Absolutefuckingly!!! I had a politics professor who was fond of psychoanalysing political leaders the Freudian way. Not only did it make for an absolutely brilliant lecture, entertainment-wise, it turns out psychoanalysis provides a fascinating insight into the minds and motivations of those that govern us. They all have something to prove to Daddy.

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It's just another tool for the exploration of the human mind.

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ORIGINAL: kittinSol

It makes the tool all that more precious. You just made the case FOR psychoanalysis: you are your own neurosis. Own it! :-)

Incidentally, I'm not a great believer - but I wouldn't diss an entire system just because I find it frightening.

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ORIGINAL: celticlord2112

Oh wow....a Democratic committee decided just before the election that Bush "misused" intelligence. 

Are we supposed to be shocked and awed?

Edited to add:

How many of those Senators voted for invasion?  How much blood is on their hands?

WASHINGTON —  Fox News has obtained a document believed to have been written by the Democratic staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee that outlines a strategy for exposing what it calls "the administration's dubious motives" in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

The memo, provided late Tuesday by a source on the Committee ... discusses the timing of a possible investigation into pre-war Iraq intelligence in such a way that it could bring maximum embarrassment to President Bush in his re-election campaign.

Among other things, the memo recommends that Democrats "prepare to launch an investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the [Senate] majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation of the administration's use of intelligence at any time — but we can only do so once ... the best time would probably be next year."

The last paragraph of the memo reads, "Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq."

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts R-Kan., appeared clearly shocked by the memo, which Sen. Jay Rockefeller D-W. Va., ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, acknowledged was written in draft form and not meant for distribution.

Roberts said Tuesday a leaked strategy memo from Rockefeller's staff "exposes politics in its most raw form."

The memo discusses strategy for "revealing the misleading, if not flagrantly dishonest, methods and motives of senior administration officials who made the case for unilateral pre-emptive war." It discussed how Democrats could press for an independent investigation that has already been rejected by the Republican-led Congress or launch their own investigation.

In a statement, Roberts said that the memo "appears to be a road map for how the Democrats intend to politicize what should be a bipartisan, objective review of prewar intelligence."

Rockefeller did not say who wrote the memo.

...

Roberts said he believes the strategy outlined in the memo may constitute a violation of Senate ethics rules, an issue he may pursue with the ethics committee.

"I have no idea how this became public. I am a little stunned. You can't politicize the Intelligence Committee. The memo is blatantly partisan. Members of the committee on the Republican side are frustrated, outraged and indignant. I hope we can get past this," Roberts said.

...

Fox News' Brian Wilson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY


'Bush Lied'? If Only It Were That Simple.

By Fred Hiatt
The Washington Post
Monday, June 9, 2008; Page A17

Veddy interesting, Firm.

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ORIGINAL: celticlord2112
Actually, if memory serves, that Freud's own neuroses colored his thinking in developing the psychoanalytic model is something of a mainstay of criticism of Freud within modern psychology.

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ORIGINAL: Level

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ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY


'Bush Lied'? If Only It Were That Simple.

By Fred Hiatt
The Washington Post
Monday, June 9, 2008; Page A17

Veddy interesting, Firm.

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ORIGINAL: kittinSol

Oh okay then. "He was wrong." It's all fine then. It's all Congress' fault.

Seriously, don't you think that you ought to hold higher standards of conducts and ethics and intelligence for your very own Lord in Chief?

How can you be so supine?

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ORIGINAL: celticlord2112

It's everybody's fault.  Bush and Congress.