Calling the findings of a new Pentagon Inspector General report on Pre Iraqi invasion intelligence a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities, Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, charged what many war opponents have held as truth-- intelligence used to justify an invasion of Iraq, was manipulated.
In response to the dramatic language Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia countered, saying he was "still trying to figure out why we're here" arguing that "we're beating this horse one more time" said Chambliss.
This coming from a man who whipped the same horse for his own political gain, back when he blasted decency from the Georgia Senate race in 2002. As you may recall, Chambliss ran television attack ads filled with suggestive simultaneous images of Saddam, Osama and his Democratic opponent, Max Cleland, a US war vet who lost limbs in Vietnam, but as a Senator, happened to be critical of Bush Administration policy.
Regardless, Chambliss' question is legitimate. What purpose does it serve for the Senate to beat this sore old horse one more time and study and air the findings of Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble?
The answer is simple.
The American people deserve to know if their trust was violated. What could be wrong with finding out whether arrogance and reckless cherry picking of key intelligence was used to sell fear, subsequent foreign policy and military action. Beating this horse once again might lead all Americans to some conclusive, probably painful, but necessary answers about how we arrived at our latest tragedy, Iraq.
The dots continue to be confirmed and connected.
Think back to a 2002 "CBS News" report by correspondent David Martin that reported just hours after the planes of 9/11 had struck New York and the Pentagon Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's began instructing aides to find links between Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
According to the cited notes taken by Don Rumsfeld's aides, the Defense Secretary said he wanted the "best information fast" that would "judge whether good enough to hit Saddam Hussein".
"Go massive" and "Sweep it all up. Things related and not" said Rumsfeld in the notes according to the CBS.
The new Gimble report shows how those instructions might have shot down the chain of command to then Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz. According to the report, Wolfowitz then instructed Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith to access links between Al Queda and Iraq.
The group went to work, digging for links.
According to the "Washington Post", in July 2002, the Feith led group then put together a position paper that was later transformed into a briefing.
But red flags were raised about the report/briefing's contents, accuracy and verifiability.
The CIA was warning that portions of the briefing were flawed, the most high profile nugget of information being the highly publicized story that there had been contacts between 9/11 hijacker-terrorist Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence agents.
Gimble said, when the Feith report was complete, the CIA called the 'Atta' part of the report "contradictory at best".
