corrente

Bob Drogin of the LA Times writes:

Frustrated at the failure to find Saddam Hussein's suspected stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have launched a major effort to determine if they were victims of bogus Iraqi defectors who planted disinformation to mislead the West before the war.

Are there no limits to the subtley of the middle eastern mind?!

The goal, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, "is to see if false information was put out there and got into legitimate channels and we were totally duped on it." He added, "We're reinterviewing all our sources of information on this. This is the entire intelligence community, not just the U.S."

Carefully heaving the Brits over the side yet again... Since we can't blame it on the French or the Italians!

"They were shown bits of information and led to believe there was an active weapons program, only to be turned loose to make their way to Western intelligence sources," said the senior intelligence official. "Then, because they believe it, they pass polygraph tests ... and the planted information becomes true to the West, even if it was all made up to deceive us."

Ah... I guess these polygraphed defectors must have been those "other sources" we heard so much about after the 16 word lie blew up in aWol's face.

Critics had charged that the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence on Iraq to bolster support for the war. The broader question now is whether some of the actual intelligence was fabricated and U.S. officials failed to detect it.

One U.S. intelligence official said analysts may have been too eager to find evidence to support the White House's claims. As a result, he said, defectors "were just telling us what we wanted to hear."

Whoever heard of such a thing?

Well, it looks like the administration has to make of their mind:

Are they going to look like liars, or just stupid? Of course, it's always possible to have the best of both worlds!