Why was this prewar intelligence ignored?

Iraqi scientist gave CIA information that should have prevented war


Saad Tawfiq told his handlers that saddam had shut down wmd program


By Agence France Presse (AFP)





Tuesday, February 05, 2008











AMMAN: When Saad Tawfiq watched then-US Secretary of state Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, he shed bitter tears as he realized he had risked his life and those of his loved ones for nothing. As one of Saddam Hussein's most gifted engineers, Tawfiq knew that the Iraqi dictator had shut down his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs in 1995 - and he had told his handlers in US intelligence just that.Now in his 50s, a round-faced man with a small moustache and lively eyes behind delicate spectacles, Tawfiq described how the CIA set up an elaborate operation to recruit Iraqi weapons scientists and then ignored the results.





From the end of 2002 the US spy agency had sources inside Iraq's weapons plants telling them clearly what the whole world now knows - that Saddam had ended efforts to produce weapons of mass destruction.





Nevertheless, in March 2003 the United States and Britain invaded Iraq to disarm Saddam of this non-existent arsenal and in the process triggered the effective collapse of the Iraqi state, plunging it into chaos and bringing hundreds of thousands of deaths.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?...

Why was this prewar intelligence ignored?
The Bush Administration willfully ignored any evidence or testimony that didn't fit into the big scary threat they wanted us to perceive in Saddamn Hussein in the wake of the 2001 terror attack on the US.





It follows perfectly the agenda of the "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC) whose members made up a vast percentage of the Bush cabinet and State Department appointments. They had envisioned American intervention in the Mideast, the establishment of bases, preferably in Iraq, and the robust projection of military force into the region to secure American national interests for the next hundred years.
Reply:This is new to you? Did you ever hear of the "Downing Street Memo?" It said that the U.S. was determined to attack Iraq regardless of the intelligence saying that Iraq had given up its weapons programs. This was just a way for Bush to get the war he wanted.
Reply:There was an agenda to make war on Iraq years before Bush was elected. This was mostly because of the HUGE influence that Israel has in US affairs.





Iraq was never a threat to the US, in fact one reason that US authorities thought that it would be easy to find WMDs was because they GAVE Saddam nerve gas back in the early '90s. However he probably used it all on the Kurds, or sold it to someone else as they couldn't find any.





No, the war was undertaken because Iraq was a threat to Israel, as is Iran. You note that there has been a lot of demonization of Iran lately? Same reason.
Reply:It's obvious you didn't watch the 60 minutes interview with the person who interrogated Saddam Hussein. Saddam wanted the whole world to believe he did have WMD and he had succeded in convincing about 95% of the world he did have WMDs. And he wanted Nukes. He also admitted he didn't think Bush would invade and when Bush did invade it was too late.





The US did have some intel Saddam didn't have anything. The intell from a lot more places and sources said Saddam did have WMDs. The bottom line is for every source that said he didn't there was at least a 3:1 ratio that said he did.





If the US had known for certain Saddam didn't have anything we probably wouldn't have invaded. But the US didn't know for (and here is the big word) CERTAIN.
Reply:Because Bush wanted a war. He was not working for the American People. He was working for Haliburton, Dyncorp, Bechtel, and Blackwater.
Reply:You mean like the fact that Russia is delivery 80 tons of nuclear materials to Iran and that Iran's crazy leader has threatened my Israel?? like that you mean..F.P
Reply:Cry Wolf!





Sadddam had been hinting that he had WMD for years. CIA/Bush?Cheney were conditioned to believe that he had them. Any other data could be ignored because it did not fit the accepted "knowledge."
Reply:I wouldn't call anything printed in the Daily Star..."intelligence".








Saddam himself was a weapon of mass destruction. Just ask any of the survivors of his blood bath.
Reply:Saddam himself said he was working on nuclear weapons and had chemical and biological.. I guess we should just ignore what the leader says and take the word of the scientist that may or may not have an axe to grind or may be involved in a misinformation campaign. We made the right decision regardless and now the country has a democracy.
Reply:Because intelligence is not absolute.





It comes in bits and pieces. For each piece of intelligence that suggest Saddam wasn't hiding something, there was probably intelligence that suggests that he was hiding something.
Reply:Because Duhbya and Cheney made sure it was ignored
Reply:Not positive of the validity of this article... but we already knew the theme was true.... that the "threat" of Iraq was .... exaggerated... a bit
Reply:I don't think it was ingored.





It was weighted against all the other information that was out there at the time.





Intel is not as clear as you may think and they look at many factors and not cherry pick the ones you want to get head of the line.





Besides which it is already done and there is nothing you can do about.





You also have to look at the Democrats who believe that Iraq was a threat long before Bush took office.





For your reference:


http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdqu...
Reply:I don't think it was ignored...it just wasn't popular. It doesn't take much to get a whole lot of people spinning...good grief, look how people get so twisted about Britney Spears! Talk about UNimportant!





So, what do you think would happen in this country if word got out about something IMPORTANT: like, say that there are nuclear warheads pointed at us? How about that we have received information that Al-Quaida is coming.





Everybody would PANIC...and oh by the way, actually have the audacity to think that they're opinion would solve everything. (and that's just people that I know...eek -- I would hate to hear those idiot media pundits would have to say).





Truly, you can tell a certain group of people the truth with diagrams and pictures, and they're simply going to cry "Conspiracy" no matter what. Unfortunately, those people are still allowed to vote...and usually have the most children.





God help us
Reply:So Saddam should have just been allowed to continue his genocidal human rights abuses, for the simple fact that he had quit building the actual weapons? Brilliant. I should have thought of that before.



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