Bush Distorted Prewar Intel, Report Says

Bush’s claims that Saddam Hussein was prepared to arm terrorists with weapons of mass destruction contradicted intelligence, a report says.

Bush putar belit fakta risikan Iraq

WASHINGTON – Presiden Amerika Syarikat (AS), George W. Bush (gambar) dan penasihat kanannya memutar belitkan fakta berhubung bekas Presiden Iraq, Saddam Hussein dengan keganasan, menurut satu laporan jawatankuasa perisikan Senat semalam.

Laporan itu turut menyatakan bahawa Bush turut tidak mengendahkan keraguan agensi perisikan berhubung program senjata Iraq yang dijadikan alasan utama untuk menjajah negara itu.

Jawatankuasa itu berkata, kenyataan daripada pentadbiran Bush yang mendakwa Iraq mempunyai hubungan dengan Al-Qaeda dan memberikan latihan senjata tidak disokong dengan laporan perisikan.

Menurut laporan itu, beberapa kenyataan Bush berhubung senjata kemusnahan besar-besaran yang dimiliki oleh Iraq sebelum negara itu diceroboh pada Mac 2003 kebanyakannya disokong oleh sumber perisikan AS.

Bagaimanapun, pentadbiran beliau gagal memberi maklum balas terhadap perdebatan berhubung sebarang penemuan senjata itu selepas peperangan tamat.

Kajian itu juga menyokong laporan sebelum ini yang mendapati alasan utama pentadbiran Bush melancarkan perang tidak tepat dan tidak berasas.

Laporan itu turut memetik kenyataan Setiausaha Pertahanan ketika itu, Donald Rumsfeld yang mendakwa Iraq mempunyai kemudahan senjata bawah tanah yang tidak disokong dengan laporan perisikan.

“Bush dan penasihatnya membuat kempen besar-besaran selepas serangan pengganas pada 11 September 2001 untuk melancarkan perang terhadap Al-Qaeda dan untuk menjatuhkan Saddam,” kata pengerusi jawatan kuasa itu, John Rockefeller. – Reuters

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Bush Distorted Prewar Intel, Report Says

WASHINGTON (June 5) – President George W. Bush and his top policymakers misstated Saddam Hussein’s links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq’s arms programs as they made a case for war, the Senate intelligence committee reported on Thursday.

The report shows an administration that “led the nation to war on false premises,” said the committee’s Democratic Chairman, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia. Several Republicans on the committee protested its findings as a “partisan exercise.”

The committee studied major speeches by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials in advance of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and compared key assertions with intelligence available at the time.

Statements that Iraq had a partnership with al Qaeda were wrong and unsupported by intelligence, the report said.

It said that Bush’s and Cheney’s assertions that Saddam was prepared to arm terrorist groups with weapons of mass destruction for attacks on the United States contradicted available intelligence.

Such assertions had a strong resonance with a U.S. public, still reeling after al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Polls showed that many Americans believed Iraq played a role in the attacks, even long after Bush acknowledged in September 2003 that there was no evidence Saddam was involved.

The report also said administration prewar statements on Iraq’s weapons programs were backed up in most cases by available U.S. intelligence, but officials failed to reflect internal debate over those findings, which proved wrong. …more

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