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Bush Misled US Into Iraq War--An Official Finding?

By David Corn
The Nation
Thursday 26 June 2003

George W. Bush misled the nation into war.

Who says?

Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence
committee.

On the basis of what?

On the basis of information preliminarily reviewed by the intelligence
committee as part of its ongoing investigation into the prewar intelligence
on Iraq.

On June 25, during the House debate on the intelligence authorization bill,
Harman delivered an informal progress report on her committee's inquiry. Her
remarks received, as far as I can tell, little media attention. But they are
dramatic in that these comments are the first quasi-findings from an
official outlet confirming that Bush deployed dishonest rhetoric in guiding
the United States to invasion and occupation in Iraq. This is not an op-ed
judgment; this is an evaluation from a member of the intelligence committee
who claims to be basing her statements on the investigative work of the
committee. Here's what she says:

On Bush's prewar assertions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction: "When
discussing Iraq's WMD, administration officials rarely included the caveats
and qualifiers attached to the intelligence committee's judgments….For many
Americans, the administration's certainty gave the impression that there was
even stronger intelligence about Iraq's possession of and intention to use
WMD."

On the evidence upon which the WMD assertions were based: "The committee is
now investigating whether the intelligence case on Iraq's WMD was based on
cir***stantial evidence rather than hard facts and whether the intelligence
community made clear to the policy-makers and Congress that most of its
****ytic judgments were based on things like aerial photographs and Iraqi
defector interviews, not hard facts."

On the supposed Hussein-al Qaeda connection: "[T]he investigation suggests
that the intelligence linking al Qaeda to Iraq, a prominent theme in the
administration's statements prior to the war, [was] contrary to what was
claimed by the administration."

She is not beating around the bush. She asserts that the President
overstated the WMD case, ignoring nuances and uncertainties in the
intelligence reporting, and created a false impression about what was known
about the threat posed by Iraq. She maintains that Bush rashly claimed
Hussein was in cahoots with the evildoers of 9/11, when intelligence
indicated otherwise. This is damning stuff. Never mind all the recent
claptrap from administration apologists about the Iraq war having been
fought for the good of the repressed Iraqis. The primary rationale for the
war Bush offered in public was based on two notions: Iraq possessed
ready-to-go WMDs and Saddam Hussein was in league with al Qaeda and could
slip these awful weapons to Osama bin Laden at any moment. (Last fall, Bush
exclaimed--with no caveats or qualifiers--that Hussein was "dealing" with al
Qaeda.) The danger, Bush and his crew argued repeatedly, was imminent and
real--so clear-and-present that the United States could not afford to wait
any longer or take a chance on enhanced and more intrusive inspections.

Now Harman says Bush had no right to declare, as he did on March 17, that
"intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that
the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal
weapons ever devised," or to say Hussein was a bin Laden ally. Harman, a
California moderate who is no hothead and who voted for the Iraq war, is
essentially branding Bush a liar. If her remarks accurately reflect the
committee's work, it means the administration will be confronted with
evidence it misrepresented intelligence in its attempt to whip up support
for the war. And it may well be confronted in public. Harman notes that
Representative Porter Goss, the Republican chairman of the committee, has
promised to hold public hearings, perhaps in July, and to produce an
unclassified report as soon as possible. (Soon after Harman made her remarks
on the floor, Goss led a successful effort to defeat an amendment offered by
Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic presidential candidate, that
would have required the inspector general of the CIA to investigate the
allegation that Vice President **** Cheney pressured the agency to produce
reports supporting the administration's policy on Iraq.)

"It is already clear that there were flaws in US intelligence," Harman says.
"Iraq's WMD was not located where the intelligence community thought it
might be. Chemical weapons were not used in the war despite the intelligence
community's judgment that their use was likely. I urge this administration
not to contemplate military action, especially preemptive action, in Iran,
North Korea or Syria until these issues are cleared up." She also suggests
that an independent commission might be needed to examine the MIA WMD
controversy.

Harman's statement was a sneak preview. If she is not blowing smoke, Bush's
prewar deceptions may end up more thoroughly substantiated than was his case
for war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062803C.shtml
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