No One Could Have Predicted…
From Lisa Myers and Robert Windrem, NBC News Investigative Unit: CIA warned of risks of war in the Mideast
In a move sure to raise even more questions about the decision to go to war with Iraq, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will on Friday release selected portions of pre-war intelligence in which the CIA warned the administration of the risk and consequences of a conflict in the Middle East.
Among other things, the 40-page Senate report reveals that two intelligence assessments before the war accurately predicted that toppling Saddam could lead to a dangerous period of internal violence and provide a boost to terrorists. But those warnings were seemingly ignored.
In January 2003, two months before the invasion, the intelligence community’s think tank — the National Intelligence Council — issued an assessment warning that after Saddam was toppled, there was “a significant chance that domestic groups would engage in violent conflict with each other and that rogue Saddam loyalists would wage guerilla warfare either by themselves or in alliance with terrorists.”
So now we are pretty much assured that the only people who didn’t know what a mess was going to be caused by the invasion of Iraq were the Shrubbery and his “Hedgemony” of true believers.
When these idiots talk about what Osama was planning to do in 2005, keep in mind that the reason that Osama was and is free to make plans is because they were more interested in Saddam than al Qaeda.
2 comments
The maddening thing is that this was known as early as September 2002. Indeed, anyone paying attention who had even a minimal grasp of Middle East history could have reached the same conclusions.
I despair for our country when the electorate remains so ignorant, the media so indifferent, and our leaders so venal and incompetent.
This was the main reason Saddam wasn’t removed after the first Gulf War, and Powell, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. were part of the administration that made that determination.
These people are more interested in profits than security.