Raw Story:
After the damage to its reputation caused by using faulty intelligence to justify the invasion in Iraq, the Bush administration has been more cautious about publicly presenting evidence of Iran's assistance to Iraqi militias, according to a report in the National Journal today.
Reporter and blogger Laura Rozen reports that twice in the past month, the Bush administration has delayed presentation of PowerPoint slides making the case that Iran is assisting Shi'a militias in Iraq's simmering sectarian conflict. While US officials in Baghdad are ready to present the slides, the White House is wary that "the press will scrutinize the information intensely, that the intelligence 'dots' that the administration has assembled about Iran in Iraq can be connected multiple ways."
Rozen explains that while the White House sees "damning" evidence of Iran's engagement with the Shi'a side of Iraq's hostilities, "the intelligence community is quietly indicating that the case purporting to prove Iran's involvement in Iraq is murkier and less decisive than the thrust of recent administration statements suggests."
A little more cautious about it, sure. But this sounds like 2003 all over again. If the evidence is so damned good, why all the caution about releasing it?
Maybe because the administration has cried wolf once too often.
BBC:
The Democratic chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee has suggested intelligence was twisted in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Carl Levin was reacting to a report by the defence department's top watchdog, Inspector General Thomas Gimble.
The report accuses a former top Pentagon official of running an alternative intelligence operation.
What was going on here was that the Pentagon and the administration was getting intelligence about Iraq from the CIA. They didn't like that intel -- mostly because it was true -- and came up with their own 'alternative' intel -- i.e., untrue. The report referenced in the story found that, while the Pentagon's cooking intelligence was 'inappropriate,' it wasn't illegal. Pretty much what we've come to expect from a Pentagon investigation of itself.
So the Bush admin. is being cautious because they know that it'll be a damned sight harder to fool everyone this time around.
Tags: news | politics | war | Pentagon | Bush | Iran | Iraq | propaganda
