"Fairy Tales," The (lack of) intelligence underpinning Bush's Iraq policy

“Fairy Tales”

The (lack of) intelligence underpinning Bush's Iraq policy

Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein's Information Minister became the butt of a million jokes for proclaiming that American soldiers were being routed, even as U.S. troops were quickly closing in on Baghdad. “Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad,” Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf—aka Baghdad Bob—said as Saddam's end neared. “Be assured, Baghdad is safe.”

Now, on the subject of Iraq the Bush administration has roughly the same credibility as Baghdad Bob, and for similar reasons: the administration covers its ears when it gets bad news and anyone bold enough to deliver it is sent to face the firing squad. “This administration,” Bob Graham, the former Senator and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told me, “does not seek the truth as a basis for its judgments, but tries to use intelligence to validate judgments it has already made.”

A number of current and former intelligence officials have told me that the administration's war on internal dissent has crippled the CIA's ability to provide realistic assessments from Iraq. “The system of reporting is shut down,” said one person familiar with the situation. “You can't write anything honest, only fairy tales.”

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“The CIA's ability to speak honestly is gone,” concluded the official, “which is extraordinarily dangerous to our country.”

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Clearly, better reporting from Iraq is badly needed. But don't expect more honesty out of Baghdad soon. Under this administration, anything less than cheerleading can be a career-ending move.

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http://harpers.org/sb-cia-badnews-293480283.html