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Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy
By
Julian Borger in Washington
02/11/06 "The
Guardian" -- -- The CIA official in charge of
intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the
Bush administration of ignoring assessments that sanctions and
weapons inspections were the best way to deal with Saddam
Hussein, and that an invasion would have a "messy aftermath".
In an article in the next edition of the bimonthly journal,
Foreign Affairs, Paul Pillar, has become the highest-ranking CIA
official from the prewar period to accuse the White House of
manipulating the intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction.
The allegations contradict the findings of two official
inquiries into the intelligence debacle, which have largely
blamed the CIA and absolved the administration. They also
emerged on the day it was reported that Lewis Libby, a former
aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney, had told a grand jury that
he had been "ordered" by "his superiors" to leak classified WMD
information to the press to bolster the case for going to war.
The White House made no direct response to Mr Pillar's claims.
Mr Pillar said the White House had simply ignored intelligence
that did not conform with its intention to invade. "It went to
war without requesting - and evidently without being influenced
by - any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect
of Iraq." The "broadly held" intelligence assessment, he said,
was that the best way to deal with the weapons problem was
through an aggressive inspections programme to supplement the
sanctions already in place.
"If the entire body of official intelligence analysis on Iraq
had a policy implication, it was to avoid war - or, if war was
going to be launched, to prepare for a messy aftermath."
Mr Pillar said a CIA assessment of the implications of a US-led
occupation had "presented a picture of a political culture that
would not provide fertile ground for democracy and foretold a
long, difficult, and turbulent transition", including guerrilla
attacks and sectarian conflict.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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