CIA Forged Iraq Intelligence, New Book Says

Ron Suskind, author of "The Price of Loyalty" and "The One Percent Doctrine," is out with a new book that includes CIA forgery of pre-war intelligence, the Politico reports:

A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in "The Way of the World," to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery - adamantly denied by the White House - was designed to portray a false link between Hussein's regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official "that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion."

George Tenet, director of the CIA at the time, responds:

There was no such order from the White House to me nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from CIA ever involved in any such effort.

It is well established that, at my direction, CIA resisted efforts on the part of some in the Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qa'ida connections that went beyond the evidence. The notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and have created and planted false evidence that was contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.

There are undoubtedly many other errors in the book - but these are the first ones of which I've been made aware. One would think a serious journalist would have, at a minimum, asked the supposed participants if what he was prepared to write was consistent with the facts. Mr. Suskind never contacted me on anything regarding this book. I suppose he had a story that fell into the category of: "too good to check."

Asked about Tenet's reaction on NBC's "Today," Suskind said it's "part of George's memory issue." Watch:

The White House issued its own denial: deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said, "The notion that the White House directed anyone to forge a letter from Habbush to Saddam Hussein is absurd."

Suskind responded that the White House "is all but obligated to deny this."

"If they go in the other direction, I think they're probably going to have to start firing people," he told the AP.

Comments

[K2isnothome]

01:48 PM on 08/06/2008

George Tenet is a big fat liar!

[mamacat]

07:43 AM on 08/06/2008

Mr. Sussking needs to present evidence. While it is consistent with the behaviour that we have witnessed from this administration at other times and on other issues, where is the evidence?

[111]

08:23 AM on 08/06/2008

He has tapes of on the record officials giving him the information.

[omahkohkiaayo]

02:54 PM on 08/06/2008

Read the book as I will before summarily dismissing the purported evidence and reasoning in it.

But the evidence can also be found in his previous books starting with The Price of Loyalty: The Education of Paul O'Neill (with particular reference to the documents attached with the paperback version--e.g. Document dated Feb 2, 2001 "Political-Military Plan for Post-Saddam Crisis) and his "One-percent Solution" none of which has been refuted.

No one source provides overwhelming evidence for anything especially when dealing with conspiracy--it is like putting together a mosaix composed of many pieces of different colors. You use triangulation (not the kind that most politicians use to put together cynical single-interest-group coalitions and appear to be "above" left or right) but the kind that examines from diverse ideological perspectives to see where the lines intersect.

Cognitive dissonance strikes again. For all of us (see The Political Brain by Drew Westin) not only
"seeing is believing", but more often, "believing is seeing"--only what we already believe, is what we narcissistically are prepared to "see" and consider.

[blico]

06:22 AM on 08/06/2008

Would be more beleivable if Dan Rather had written the book.

[leftLibertarian]

08:21 PM on 08/06/2008

You bleeding hearts always favor the criminals like Bush and Cheney rather than the victims like the Iraqi and American People.

[blico]

06:40 AM on 08/07/2008

BLEEDING HEART!!! You are kidding, or you are just along for the train ride like most of the other bloogers on the Huffpo.

[JagPop]

06:07 AM on 08/06/2008

Blah, blah, blah.
.
Just replayed an interview with Democrat John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
.
The democrats won't do anything (anything substantial that is, like impeachment) because stuff like this is good for getting them reelected.
.
Democrats MUST get reelected so that We The People can be represented. Represented by people who won't do anything because if they DID do something they would harm their chances of getting reelected to represent us.

Oh say can't you see?

[knerd]

03:38 AM on 08/06/2008

There is no excuse. It is unbelievable that this story will not be on the front page of every newspaper in the world.

What is wrong with us? America, you're losing me....

[blico]

06:21 AM on 08/06/2008

Absolutely !!!! Right next to the John Edwards story.

[K2isnothome]

01:49 PM on 08/06/2008

What?! You didn't bring up the Teapot Dome Scandal??? Stick to important stuff like John McCain's $500 shoes.
Get wise, it's about the Constitution and a war sold to Americans on false pretenses and lies.
Why aren't you outraged?

[blico]

06:40 AM on 08/06/2008

Absolutely !!! - Right next to the John Edwards story. By golly, there really is 2 Americas

[iswideopen]

01:26 AM on 08/06/2008

It became more than clear, after a while, that the war in Iraq was a huge life altering mistake by George W. Bush & Co. All of those soldiers and Iraqis died for nothing. America is in turmoil as never before and it doesn't seem to matter to those who want this fiasco to continue. As Americans, we should be more than outraged. We absolutely can not have another republican president for a long, long time, if ever. People, please, do some research and snap out of the denial. We are owed the truth and George W. Bush should be in jail with all of his minions.

[darthdarcy]

12:26 AM on 08/06/2008

Cut to the chase if Habbush was so unreliable then why did they pay him $5million dollars...

If they didn't like his direct first hand Intel then it could have only been hush money...

Of course Meredith is leaving out one important point there were no WMD's in Iraq...so Habbush was telling the truth and again they paid him $5 million dollars...

Now if this can be confirmed as I learned tonight from Suskind's appearance on Countdown from John Dean this is a violation of 18 USC sec. 371 which is a form of defrauding the United States Government and a crime which brought down most of those who were caught up in Watergate...

Also of course this is much much much worse the Watergate thousands and thousands of people have died, and many many more horribly disfigured and disabled and dispossessed..already over $2 Trillion spent when you count the money it will cost us to care for those wounded and psychologically scared...for the rest or most of their lives...

[awcbuddy8]

12:07 AM on 08/06/2008

Yeah, if we could ever, you know, see this letter that would be super.

[authoritarianbootlicker]

01:58 AM on 08/06/2008

This all ties in with other evidence. Downing Street Memo, propoganda to sell the war. Remember Colin Powell using props and cartoons at the UN? Treasury Secy Snow saying that Iraq was on the list day one. What about the "Clean Break" document which is called the Neo-Con Manifesto?

If the letter was in your face you'd still be in denial. Go back to your Daddy Bimbaugh!

[realpolitic]

07:26 AM on 08/06/2008

When you see it what excuses will you make then, Awky?

[PuffDragon]

11:33 PM on 08/05/2008

Tenet has already admitted painting a grimmer picture about WMD & Saddam than was actually true. So has Colin Powell. This new light takes some of the pretty varnish (or white wash) off of Tenet's rosy recollections.

[moongal6]

02:08 AM on 08/06/2008

Tenet doesn't want to have to give back his medal.

[edwarvir]

11:26 PM on 08/05/2008

Congress has to follow up on this. There is no way Nancy Pelosi can turn away
from investigating these charges. This is unthinkable behavior .

[katok]

11:16 PM on 08/05/2008

Perhaps the U.S, government should sue G.W. Bush to recover the 5 Trillion that has been spent playing cowboy in Iraq. Yippee- ki-ye mthrfckrs. He probably has that much stashed at UBS, and Israel. Or confiscate his ranch in Paraguay.

[demfriend]

10:49 PM on 08/05/2008

Can we trust any piece of our government to follow the laws and of course the Constitution? If Mccain gets elected we will have the same as Bush and it should be plain as it can be but many just do not get that message! How can it be said to be real to those who believe Mccain is any different than Bush. When the message Mccain was yelling wasn't "dril, dril, drill offshore now" he had not gotten the biggest chunk of money from the oil companies. Someone said that at least it was US oil companies but buying Mccain should show every single person he is for sale and his campaign full of lobbyests says even more. Special Interest groups with Bush have little on what Mccain is doing and plans to do.

[catzoned]

10:51 PM on 08/05/2008

I’ll bet there was a lot more going on than the CIA (and other government agencies) forging intelligence (and George Tenet) as the 9/11 Commission release and Richard A. Clarkes book (Against All Enemies) indicated. Remember how fast those topics died on the lips of media and citizens? Condi Rice roles in those events were also squashed and she actually received a promotion from National Security Advisor to Secretary Of State! Just incredible…

Remember Bush was inaugurated Jan. 20, 2001 and by Feb. 27, 2001, Qwest was refusing to turn over personal information of their customers to the new Bush administration. (Google the date) What we do not know is why Bush needed, or wanted, to obtain personal, warrantless, and intrusive information and illegal wiretapping. Did he want to spy on other politicians or did he know about the pending 9/11 attacks and did nothing about it? All of America deserves an answer to that information! Remember 9/11 HAD NOT happened yet. Oh my, my, there are many, many questions about this Bush administration that remain unanswered. George Tenets roles is just one question of many.

[loki]

10:38 PM on 08/05/2008

considering Bush wanted to paint a plane to look like a UN plane and provoke Saddam into shooting at it so they could start a war, I would not doubt this as being truth. Also remember, while the CIA had its on intel people working this, but they did not come up with things Bush wanted to hear, Cheney went in an organized the private intel group of 5 hand picked people who were to " Make the evidence fit the claim"
which they did. Nothing surprises me with this administration. What surprises me is that no one in DC will take serious steps to bring Bush Co down and to justice. I guess it could only be that either many others were involved and dont want to risk being found out, or , dems and repugs alike have so much illegal activities in their closet, they dont want back lash from this to have it all leak out. Basically, they are all so crooked, they cover for each other, and we, the people, will forever get skrewed over, and over and over, until we get every last one of the current politicians out, and new ones in with term restrictions and no way they or their families can ever become lobbyist. Or outlaw lobbyist all together.

[Pavlovszombie]

10:38 PM on 08/05/2008

Anybody remember this?: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/21/bush-on-911/