Democrats & Liberals:: The Ring of Truth
Democrats & Liberals:: The Ring of Truth: "As we sort through a week of headlines, or the news of the day, we latch onto those stories which for us have the "ring of truth". For me, this week, the ring of truth shouted loudest in the words of Paul Pillar, who concluded his long career in the CIA by serving as National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005.
it has become clear that official intelligence analysis was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community's own work was politicized.
Pillar's conclusion scarcely shocks those of us who have believed since even before the Iraq war commenced that the Bush administration was bound and determined to find a justification for an invasion and was perfectly happy to 'fix the intelligence and facts around the policy', well before that charge was revealed in the Downing Street Memos. After the invasion but before the Downing Street Memos came Ron Suskind's book, The Price of Loyalty, which details the observations of former Bush insider, Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill that the Administration's desire to go into Iraq militarily predated even September 11. O'Neill remained loyal to the President, but revealed this as a matter of fact, even as Bush attempted to deny it."
Posted by Walker Willingham at February 12, 2006 07:14 PM
it has become clear that official intelligence analysis was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community's own work was politicized.
Pillar's conclusion scarcely shocks those of us who have believed since even before the Iraq war commenced that the Bush administration was bound and determined to find a justification for an invasion and was perfectly happy to 'fix the intelligence and facts around the policy', well before that charge was revealed in the Downing Street Memos. After the invasion but before the Downing Street Memos came Ron Suskind's book, The Price of Loyalty, which details the observations of former Bush insider, Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill that the Administration's desire to go into Iraq militarily predated even September 11. O'Neill remained loyal to the President, but revealed this as a matter of fact, even as Bush attempted to deny it."
Posted by Walker Willingham at February 12, 2006 07:14 PM
posted by Jim Downey at 11:45 AM
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