Ray McGovern - Playing Make-Believe for War: Not the First Time

To those readers still wandering the labyrinth of Bush administration explanations regarding how “intelligence” known to be spurious got into the president’s state-of-the-union address: Don’t give up yet. I think I can help.

The White House is on solid ground in pinning most of the blame on CIA director George Tenet for giving unwarranted prominence to reporting that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa. Why? Because the report was demonstrably implausible on its face.

“The alleged contract (between Iraq and Niger) could not have been honored, as the export of uranium from Niger is fully controlled by international companies,” is how the International Atomic Energy Agency dismissed the report. Former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson had already underscored that in his report on March 9, 2002 following his eight-day fact-finding trip to Niger. Wilson also described the processes in place for monitoring and transporting uranium from Niger, processes that make illicit diversions virtually impossible.

The subsequent revelation that the original report was not only implausible in substance but based on a forgery should have driven the final nail into its coffin. Instead, the report was resuscitated and used last September and October in a game of “make-believe”—make Congress believe that the threat from Iraq required a preemptive strike.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0731-03.htm

for not protecting his own analysts, for caving to pressure. Oh, no, this is not over. BUT I hope McGovern's columns are run widely--much as I love Common Dreams.