How They Lied Us to War

Doug Jehl has a scathing article out providing clear evidence that the Administration knowingly used intelligence from a source deemed not credible to support their claim there were ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

A top member of Al Qaeda in American custody was identified as a likelyfabricator months before the Bush administration began to use hisstatements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaedamembers to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newlydeclassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.

Go read the article in its entirety. But I’d like to make three points about this case which fit into the pattern of the way the  Bush Administration lied us to war.

• The intelligence from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was almost certainly gotten using torture.
• The Administration should have known of DIA’s doubts but still prominently usedal-Libi’s intelligence as proof of an Al Qaeda-Iraq relationship.
• The DIA may have withheld the document detailing DIA’s doubts about al-Libi from the relevant oversight committees.