Necessary revisions of history
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice trotted out to help President Bush obscure his transgressions in Iraq today on Sunday talk. The "mistaken premises" pain her, and,
Rice: I'd give anything to go back and know precisely what we were going to find when we were there. But that isn't the way that these things work. I still believe that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein is going to turn out to be a great strategic achievement, not just for the Bush administration, but for the United States of America.She also told George Stephanopoulos on ABC that during the war run-up in 2002 and 2003 within the White House, "we talked a lot about dissenting views," while largely dismissing the importance of strong contemporaneous dissent from within the State Department (that Rice would come to lead in 2005). This State Department dissent took the form of charging Bush & then Prime Minister Tony Blair of "distorting" the Iraq intelligence!
Just to remind people of this story...
Bush and Blair 'distorted' Iraqi threat, says US weapons expert
By Paul Waugh and Anne Penketh
Friday, 30 January 2004
Colin Powell's former chief weapons expert has accused Tony Blair and George Bush of failing to give an accurate picture of British and American intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.In the only moment Stephanopoulos seemed to step back from the unflinching credulity he afforded Rice, he asked, "So, you think we would have gone anyway," in reply to Rice drawing a sketch of the "murderous" Saddam. To that, Rice makes a throw-away crack about not having a "luxury."
Colin Powell's former chief weapons expert has accused Tony Blair and George Bush of failing to give an accurate picture of British and American intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
Greg Thielman, a senior figure in the State Department until last year, told The Independent yesterday that the "political leadership" in both countries was responsible for the "distorted" impression given of the Iraqi threat. ...
There is plenty Wallace and Stephanopoulos could have brought up if they had the desire and wherewithal to do so, including,
- State Dept. dissent to intentional distortion, as noted above
- "Cooked" intelligence on aluminum tubes and centrifuges
- Breathlessly inflammatory reports on mobile bioweapons labs, called "Hell on wheels" and "Winnebagos of Death" in America news, then presented with earnest mendacity at the U.N. by Colin Powell, but even before the war began were revealed by the weapons inspectors to not exist, and then a year later properly were attributed to a liar named "Curveball"
- Endless false rhetorical juxtaposition of Iraq and al Qaeda used by officials, while the "defectors" carrying the evidence later were found to be put-up jobs care of the INC, the Iraqi National Congress, run by "The Manipulator," Ahmed Chalabi
The bottom line message throughout is the distortion of Iraq intelligence was intentional. The notion of "everybody agreed" is a canard.
Obviously this history will live in public consciousness in a manner far from the truth if the likes of Secretary Rice are allowed to be the only authors. Interviewers on ABC & Fox News are unlikely to provide any substantial corrective.
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