Do you realize how much fun it's going to be when John Conyers has subpoena power?
Release the Hadley Memo
By: Rep. John Conyers
The most infamous example of the Administration's manipulation of pre-war intelligence is the sixteen words in the 2003 State of the Union Address, in which the President falsely claimed to the American people and the Congress that Iraq was attempting to acquire uranium from Africa. Until now, the Administration's line of defense has been that the President did not know about dissenting viewpoints on this issue and, therefore, acted in good faith when he presented this claim in an unequivocal fashion.
In a moment reminiscent of the revelation that the President received a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" prior to the September 11 attacks, we now learn -- via fellow Huffington Poster Murray Waas of the National Journal -- that the President received a memo advising him that the notion that Iraq was seeking nuclear weapons was anything but an unequivocal view within his own Administration. We also know that the Administration orchestrated an effort to cover up this fact before the 2004 elections.
According to National Journal, then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley summarized a National Intelligence Estimate for the President in October 2002. In that summary, Hadley specifically said that while many agencies believed the aluminum tubes were "related to a uranium enrichment effort," the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Energy Department's intelligence branch "believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons."
What did the President do just 3 months later? He stood before Congress, the American people, and the world and contradicted his own experts. During his January 2003 State of the Union Address, he claimed, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." He failed to mention that not all of our intelligence sources saw it that way... http://tinyurl.com/zu42u
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Release the Hadley Memo
By: Rep. John Conyers
The most infamous example of the Administration's manipulation of pre-war intelligence is the sixteen words in the 2003 State of the Union Address, in which the President falsely claimed to the American people and the Congress that Iraq was attempting to acquire uranium from Africa. Until now, the Administration's line of defense has been that the President did not know about dissenting viewpoints on this issue and, therefore, acted in good faith when he presented this claim in an unequivocal fashion.
In a moment reminiscent of the revelation that the President received a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" prior to the September 11 attacks, we now learn -- via fellow Huffington Poster Murray Waas of the National Journal -- that the President received a memo advising him that the notion that Iraq was seeking nuclear weapons was anything but an unequivocal view within his own Administration. We also know that the Administration orchestrated an effort to cover up this fact before the 2004 elections.
According to National Journal, then-Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley summarized a National Intelligence Estimate for the President in October 2002. In that summary, Hadley specifically said that while many agencies believed the aluminum tubes were "related to a uranium enrichment effort," the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Energy Department's intelligence branch "believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons."
What did the President do just 3 months later? He stood before Congress, the American people, and the world and contradicted his own experts. During his January 2003 State of the Union Address, he claimed, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." He failed to mention that not all of our intelligence sources saw it that way... http://tinyurl.com/zu42u
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posted by Dan at 3:13 PM
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