Bush "Willfully Ignored Experts" Before Iraq War

June 6, 2007
Bush "Willfully Ignored Experts" Before Iraq War

Whether out of hubris or incompetence, the President and his men willfully ignored the experts and sent our troops to battle unprepared for the consequences."

"Despite more than three years of stonewalling by Republicans in Congress and the Bush Administration, Democrats have taken another major step forward in restoring accountability to government by completing another exhaustive investigation of the Bush Administration's dangerous incompetence," said Reid on May 25, when the report was released. "This new Senate Intelligence Committee report clearly demonstrates that the Bush Administration ignored and dismissed its best intelligence experts' warnings to expect major challenges in post-war Iraq. We have seen the terrible consequences to American national security that have resulted from the Bush Administration's failures over the last five years."

Intelligence agencies disagreed with many of its prewar findings

February 10, 2007
Intelligence agencies disagreed with many of its prewar findings

WASHINGTON — As the Bush administration began assembling its case for war, analysts across the U.S. intelligence community were disturbed by the report of a secretive Pentagon team that concluded Iraq had significant ties to Al Qaeda.

Analysts from the CIA and other agencies "disagreed with more than 50%" of 26 findings the Pentagon team laid out in a controversial paper, according to testimony Friday from Thomas F. Gimble, acting inspector general of the Pentagon.

Report Says Pentagon Manipulated Intel

February 9, 2007
Report Says Pentagon Manipulated Intel

He cited Gimble's findings that Feith's office was, despite doubts expressed by the intelligence
community, pushing conclusions that Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague five months before the attack, and that there were "multiple areas of
cooperation" between Iraq and al-Qaida, including shared pursuit of weapons of mass
destruction.

"That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to
go to war," Levin said in an interview Thursday. He said the Pentagon's work, "which was wrong,
which was distorted, which was inappropriate … is something which is highly disturbing."

All 435 House Members Can See Iraq Intelligence

February 5, 2007
All 435 House Members Can See Iraq Intelligence

To the surprise of the Bush administration, the House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously
Wednesday night to allow all 435 House members to see the classified version of the National
Intelligence Estimate on Iraq sent to the White House last week. The report is classified in part
because it contains information about sources and methods used in intelligence-gathering.

The document will provide fuel for a House debate, scheduled to begin Tuesday, on a resolution
of disapproval of President Bush's plan to boost U.S. troop strength in Iraq. Remarkably, each
House member will be given five minutes to speak. The decision to provide such broad access to the microphones is based on the fact that each member got the chance to speak before the Iraq war
began, according to House leadership aides.