DEMOCRATS FIND SMOKING GUN WITH REGARD TO IRAQ?

There is no time to be revolted or disheartened. The quest to find and share truth is imperative. Our Democracy depends upon it. Ken dragged me out of my slump today with this incredible news. LS

From Editor and Publisher
SMOKING GUN ON MANIPULATION OF IRAQ INTELLIGENCE? NY TIMES CITES NEW DOCUMENT

If you do not receive the NYT, go out and buy a copy tomorrow. They are normally available in Barnes Noble and in various grocery stores and Starbucks in most cities. If you live in an extremely so-called red and uninformed town, find an out of town newspaper shop or go on line to New York Times.com, though the internet edition is different from the print edition. But it will beat your local newspaper, hands down, in terms of getting the facts on Iraq. LS

Smoking Gun on Manipulation of Iraq Intelligence? 'NY Times' Cites New Document
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001434737 Editor & Publisher
By E&P Staff

Editor & Publisher

By E&P Staff

Published: November 05, 2005 1:30 PM ET

NEW YORK Ever since the Democrats briefly closed the U.S. Senate from view earlier this week, to protest alleged Republican foot-dragging in probing Bush administration pre-war manipulation of intelligence, the press has been asking: So what new evidence do the Democrats have in this matter?

Tomorrow, The New York Times starts to answer the question, with reporter Doug Jehl disclosing the contents of a newly declassified memo apparently passed to him by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

It shows that an al-Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to this Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002.

It declared that it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for al-Qaeda's work with illicit weapons, Jehl reports.

„The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility,‰ Jehl writes. „Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as Œcredible‚ evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.

„Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that Œwe've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases.‚‰

A White House spokeswoman said she had no immediate comment on the D.I.A. report.

„Mr. Libi was not alone among intelligence sources later determined to have been fabricating accounts,‰ Jehl continues. „Among others, an Iraqi exile whose code name was Curveball was the primary source for what proved to be false information about Iraq and mobile biological weapons labs. And American military officials cultivated ties with Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group, who has been accused of feeding the Pentagon misleading information in urging war.‰

Libi is in custody, apparently at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he was sent in 2003.

According to Jehl, Secretary of State Colin Powell relied heavily on Libi for his speech to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, saying that he was tracing "the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to Al Qaeda."