Monday, April 24, 2006

What more do we need to know?

The story from last night's 60 Minutes is about as clear as it could possibly be: months before the invasion of Iraq the CIA had gotten Iraq's foreign minister to disclose information about Iraq's capabilities. That's right--before the war we knew from the top level of the government of Iraq what their plans and abilities were, and what we learned was that they had no so-called weapons of mass destruction. None. Zero.

You would think that would be pretty important information, wouldn't you? It's something I would want to know if I were deciding whether to invade a country because I thought they were hoarding dangerous weapons to hurt me or my allies. Still, when they found out what he had to say, all of a sudden Bush, Rice, and the rest of the gang weren't interested in hearing it.

But he says he was taken aback by what happened. "The group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they're no longer interested," Drumheller recalls. "And we said, 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said, 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"

"And if I understand you correctly, when the White House learned that you had this source from the inner circle of Saddam Hussein, they were thrilled with that," Bradley asked.

"The first we heard, they were. Yes," Drumheller replied.

Once they learned what it was the source had to say — that Saddam Hussein did not have the capability to wage nuclear war or have an active WMD program, Drumheller says, "They stopped being interested in the intelligence."


I know that we sound like a broken record, but isn't the answer obvious: ITMFA.

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