US Intel on Iraq-Qaeda ties "intentionally misleading"

[TimmyBoy]

US intel on Iraq-Qaeda ties 'intentionally misleading': document Mon Nov 7, 6:50 AM ET



WASHINGTON, (AFP) - US military intelligence warned the Bush administration as early as February 2002 that its key source on Al-Qaeda's relationship with Iraq had provided "intentionally misleading" data, according to a declassified report.

Nevertheless, eight months later, President George W. Bush went public with charges that the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein had trained members of Osama bin Laden's terror network in manufacturing deadly poisons and gases.

In captivity, al-Libi initially told his DIA debriefers that Al-Qaeda operatives had received training from Iraq in manufacturing poisons and deadly chemical agents.

But the DIA, according to its assessment, did not find the information credible.

US military intelligence officers concluded that al-Libi lacked "specific details on the Iraqis involved, the... materials associated with the assistance and the location where training occurred," the report said.

"It is possible," the document went on to say, "he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers."

The DIA suggested al-Libi, who had been under interrogation for several weeks, "may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest."

Just the same, president Bush insisted during an October 2002 trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, that his administration had learned that "Iraq has trained Al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."

He repeated the same charge in February 2003.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051107/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqintelligence

 

[scottyz]

So why did Bush decide to run with this questionable info anyways? Did Karl promise him it would never surface?

 

[TimmyBoy]

So why did Bush decide to run with this questionable info anyways? Did Karl promise him it would never surface?

No, his oil company friends promised him it wouldn't surface.