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Two high ranking former CIA officers are speaking out about the run up to war in Iraq. Namely the fact that the President was briefed about Saddam's lack of weapons of mass destruction, and didn't care, he was set to take the nation into war.
Sidney Blumenthal writes in Salon today:
On Sept. 18, [CIA Director George] Tenet briefed Bush on [Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister]. "Tenet told me he briefed the president personally," said one of the former CIA officers. According to Tenet, Bush's response was to call the information "the same old thing." Bush insisted it was simply what Saddam wanted him to think. "The president had no interest in the intelligence," said the CIA officer. The other officer said, "Bush didn't give a fuck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up."
Sabri, on Sept 17th had just told all that would listen at the UN that Iraq had no WMDs.
On the eve of Sabri's appearance at the United Nations in September 2002 to present Saddam's case, the officer in charge of this operation met in New York with a "cutout" who had debriefed Sabri for the CIA. Then the officer flew to Washington, where he met with CIA deputy director John McLaughlin, who was "excited" about the report. Nonetheless, McLaughlin expressed his reservations. He said that Sabri's information was at odds with "our best source." That source was code-named "Curveball," later exposed as a fabricator, con man and former Iraqi taxi driver posing as a chemical engineer.
If it's true that Bush knew that there were no WMDs, and he still took us to war, then for sure we should drag our feet in regards to impeaching him. AP photo
