Sunday, February 01, 2004
Bush to Back Probe of Iraq Data
Bush to Back Probe of Iraq Data, Officials Say (washingtonpost.com): President Bush has agreed to support an independent inquiry into the prewar intelligence that he used to assert that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, Republican and congressional sources said yesterday."
I was wrong about this, he has decided to appoint a blue ribbon commission to investigate the intelligence failures before the Iraq war. However, the WaPo is reporting what I said a few days ago, that there are many political risks for executing such a plan (but he seems to think that they are worth relieving this pressure; is that bravery or is that caving? I guess it depends on who you ask, like how the brits are divided on Blair).
"Politically, the decision to back an independent probe contains substantial risks for Bush. It means the White House will have to surrender some control over the timing of the investigation, raising the possibility that such a panel could release information about the intelligence failures before the Nov. 2 elections. But the pressure on Bush to accept an independent inquiry became intense after Kay, in testimony on Wednesday, said it is 'important to acknowledge failure' and that his own view is that 'it is going to take an outside inquiry, both to do it and to give yourself and the American people the confidence that you have done it.'"
"With the creation of the new commission, the White House will have two outside probes underway that could prove politically dangerous. The Justice Department has given semiautonomy to an inquiry into who in the administration leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame after her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, criticized the administration's assertion that Iraq had sought nuclear material in Africa."
Hopefully this probe proves useful and not just more political ammunition; reform in the CIA is greatly needed, this may prove to be what it takes to initiate an overhaul, since such an opportunity was missed in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Since there has been no evidence of "sexing up" of intel by by the CIA, the panel will likely conclude with ideas similar to those found in two previous discussions here at MaroonBlog (here and here), that the CIA was trying very hard to get the intel correct and believed in its findings, but fell prey to the difficulties of intelligence gathering in a closed country and overreliance on technology. The CIA needs more reliable human intelligence assets, so hopefully recruitment of Arab Americans who will be able to spy effectively for us in the middle east will begin post haste (I hope with more success than the anecdote I mention in the post here).
I was wrong about this, he has decided to appoint a blue ribbon commission to investigate the intelligence failures before the Iraq war. However, the WaPo is reporting what I said a few days ago, that there are many political risks for executing such a plan (but he seems to think that they are worth relieving this pressure; is that bravery or is that caving? I guess it depends on who you ask, like how the brits are divided on Blair).
"Politically, the decision to back an independent probe contains substantial risks for Bush. It means the White House will have to surrender some control over the timing of the investigation, raising the possibility that such a panel could release information about the intelligence failures before the Nov. 2 elections. But the pressure on Bush to accept an independent inquiry became intense after Kay, in testimony on Wednesday, said it is 'important to acknowledge failure' and that his own view is that 'it is going to take an outside inquiry, both to do it and to give yourself and the American people the confidence that you have done it.'"
"With the creation of the new commission, the White House will have two outside probes underway that could prove politically dangerous. The Justice Department has given semiautonomy to an inquiry into who in the administration leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame after her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, criticized the administration's assertion that Iraq had sought nuclear material in Africa."
Hopefully this probe proves useful and not just more political ammunition; reform in the CIA is greatly needed, this may prove to be what it takes to initiate an overhaul, since such an opportunity was missed in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Since there has been no evidence of "sexing up" of intel by by the CIA, the panel will likely conclude with ideas similar to those found in two previous discussions here at MaroonBlog (here and here), that the CIA was trying very hard to get the intel correct and believed in its findings, but fell prey to the difficulties of intelligence gathering in a closed country and overreliance on technology. The CIA needs more reliable human intelligence assets, so hopefully recruitment of Arab Americans who will be able to spy effectively for us in the middle east will begin post haste (I hope with more success than the anecdote I mention in the post here).
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