In the wake of today's report that accuses him of deliberately advancing false conclusions of a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith joins Wolfie to "clarify" things and defend his conduct; i.e. lie and spin.
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Download Feith sticks to the talking point that his office did nothing wrong and was merely "criticizing" the CIA's "theory" that there were no operational links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda; something that, despite Feith's insistence to the contrary, has been unequivocally substantiated. In other words, Feith's office took solid intelligence conclusions and distorted it with flimsy/unsubstantiated crap (see: Atta in Prague, mobile biological weapons labs, Niger yellowcake, aluminum tubes, etc.) and then presented those distortions to the WH (who accepted it) as fact. This is a calculated process that effectively gives Bush and Cheney plausible deniability should the shit ever hit the fan. It appears they learned their lesson from Iran-Contra.
Check below the fold for a comprehensive breakdown of the egregious lies advanced by Mr. Feith. Apparently everyone other than the neocons are to blame for the mistakes that brought us to war. So much for the party of personal responsibility, huh?
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Transcripts via CNN.com:
BLITZER: There was no connection that the 9/11 Commission could come up with to show that there was...a deliberate prewar operable connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
FEITH: Which nobody ever claimed. I mean, that's -- it shows how much misinformation there is...
Yea. Noone except President Bush in the most meaningful and influential speech of his presidency. Or Colin Powell in his sales pitch to the world at the UN.
FEITH: ..it specifically said the CIA is filtering its own intelligence to suit a theory that it had that secular Ba'athists would not cooperate with religious extremists.BLITZER: But that theory was right, right?
FEITH: Well, it's absolutely wrong..
So it was the CIA and not the neocon ideologues that "filtered intelligence to suit a theory"? And only partisan idiots would ever conclude that secular Saddam wouldn't cooperate with extremist al Qaeda.
FEITH: We found WMD programs. And the Duelfer Report, as I'm sure you know, was very clear on what we found in the WMD area. Although we did not find the stockpiles, we found that he had the facilities, he had the personnel, he had the intention. So there was a WMD threat.
Yea, that's what the Duelfer Report said. Only it didn't. Not even close.
