[Infowarrior] - PR Push for Iraq War Preceded Intelligence Findings

[Richard Forno]

PR Push for Iraq War Preceded Intelligence Findings

"White Paper" Drafted before NIE even Requested

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 254

Posted - August 22, 2008

For more information contact:
John Prados - (202) 994-7000

Washington D.C., August 22, 2008 - The U.S. intelligence community  
buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration  
pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq, according to a  
documents posting on the Web today by National Security Archive senior  
fellow John Prados.

The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came  
before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public  
positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a  
July 2002 draft of the "White Paper" ultimately issued by the CIA in  
October 2002 actually pre-dated the National Intelligence Estimate  
that the paper purportedly summarized, but which Congress did not  
insist on until September 2002.

A similar comparison between a declassified draft and the final  
version of the British government's "White Paper" on Iraq weapons of  
mass destruction adds to evidence that the two nations colluded in the  
effort to build public support for the invasion of Iraq. Dr. Prados  
concludes that the new evidence tends to support charges raised by  
former White House press secretary Scott McClellan and by the Senate  
Select Committee on Intelligence in its long-delayed June 2008 "Phase  
II" report on politicization of intelligence.

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http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB254/index.htm