Lying with Intelligence

Who in the White House knew about DITSUM No. 044-02, and when did they know it? What the heck is that, and why should you care? It's a reference to the Feb 2002 Defense Intelligence Agency report that blew apart the President's justification for the Iraq war. The key paragraphs were declassified only this last weekend, and what they show is that the source for the President's oft-repeated claim of a tie between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda was a phoney. The DIA report circulated widely within the Administration eight months before the President stated "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and deadly gases." He made that false claim just prior to the Senate voting to authorize the Iraq invasion. Did he or his top advisers know that the source for that statement had been discredited? That is another question that needs to be put to John Kerry and other senators from both parties on the Intelligence Committee who voted for the war. They, too, possessed the security clearance qualifying them to read DITSUM No. 044-02.

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