Ex-CIA officer accuses White House of 'misusing' data on Iraq

Paul Pillar until last year, was responsible for the collection and assessment of Intelligence on Iraq and the entire Middle East. He says that the Bush Administration did not receive incorrect information like they say. They "cherry picked" just the tidbits that would justify going to war in Iraq.

In essence they lied to you so they could kill tens of thousands for no real discernible outcome.

Pillar wrote an article for the latest issue of the foreign policy magazine, Foreign Affairs, stating that the White House "misused" (a word I would not have used) intelligence.

Tom Regan of the Christian Science Monitor writes:

"It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between [Bush] policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community's own work was politicized," Pillar wrote. Pillar retired last year after almost 30 years at the CIA. Intelligence experts interviewed by the Post described him as "an influential behind-the-scenes player and was considered the agency's leading counterterrorism analyst." One of his main responsibilities was coordinating intelligence assessments on Iraq from the entire US intelligence community. Pillar now teaches security studies at Georgetown University in Washington.

In 2004, an assessment that Pillar had made for the Bush administration about post-war Iraq was leaked to the press. The assessment said that the insurgency in Iraq could evolve into a guerrilla war or civil war. Pillar was accused by Bush supporters of being ""a longstanding intellectual opponent of the policy options chosen by President Bush to fight terrorism."

In the article for Foreign Affairs, Pillar writes that the proper roles of intelligence gathering and policy making are sharply divided. While that role can sometimes seem blurry, if the intelligence community is to maintain its credibility, it must "not advocate policy, especially openly."

Yes, I agree. Leave up to Bush to develop lies to tell the American people. That way we only have one target to aim at when we sweep Washington clean of GOP corruption after the 2006 election.

The entire article can be found here:
Ex-CIA officer accuses White House of 'misusing' data on Iraq

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