Book says White House ordered forgery

Spencer Collins · #1 (**permalink**) 08-05-2008, 01:07 PM

Quote:

By MIKE ALLEN

A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

The letter’s existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was passed in Baghdad to a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph who wrote about it on the front page of Dec. 14, 2003, under the headline, “Terrorist behind September 11 strike ‘was trained by Saddam.’”

The Telegraph story by Con Coughlin (which, coincidentally, ran the day Hussein was captured in his “spider hole”) was touted in the U.S. media by supporters of the war, and he was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Over the next few days, the Habbush letter continued to be featured prominently in the United States and across the globe," Suskind writes. "Fox's Bill O'Reilly trumpeted the story Sunday night on 'The O'Reilly Factor,' talking breathlessly about details of the story and exhorting, 'Now, if this is true, that blows the lid off al Qaeda—Saddam.'"

According to Suskind, the administration had been in contact with the director of the Iraqi intelligence service in the last years of Hussein’s regime, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti.

“The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.”

The White House flatly denied Suskind’s account. Tony Fratto, deputy White House press secretary, told Politico: “The allegation that the White House directed anyone to forge a document from Habbush to Saddam is just absurd.”

The White House plans to push back hard. Fratto added: "Ron Suskind makes a living from gutter journalism. He is about selling books and making wild allegations that no one can verify, including the numerous bipartisan commissions that have reported on pre-war intelligence."

Before “The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism,” Suskind wrote two New York Times bestsellers critical of the Bush administration – “The Price of Loyalty” (2004), which featured extensive comments by former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, and “The One Percent Doctrine” (2006).

Suskind writes in his new book that the order to create the letter was written on “creamy White House stationery.” The book suggests that the letter was subsequently created by the CIA and delivered to Iraq, but does not say how.

The author claims that such an operation, part of “false pretenses” for war, would apparently constitute illegal White House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable offense.

Suskind writes that the White House had “ignored the Iraq intelligence chief’s accurate disclosure that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.

Book says White House ordered forgery - Mike Allen - Politico.com

Released just in time for summer reading...

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008, 03:25 AM

Our credibility, in essence our honor has been sold for thirty pieces of silver, by a man claiming to be a born again Christian.
Hypocrisy doesn't seem to cover it.
Hypocrisy
Merriam Webster:
from the Greek word hypokrisis: act of playing a part on the stage.

the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion

On second thought, I guess that covers it pretty well.

cnredd · #3 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008, 04:02 AM

CIA officials deny fake Iraq-al-Qaida link letter

Quote:

Two former CIA officers Tuesday denied that they or the spy agency faked an Iraqi intelligence document purporting to link Saddam Hussein with 9/11 bomber Mohammed Atta, as they are quoted as saying in a new book.

The White House issued the statement on behalf of the former officials after a day of adamant denials from the CIA and Bush administration about the claim, made in "The Way of the World," a book by Washington-based journalist Ron Suskind.

"I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document ... as outlined in Mr. Suskind's book," said Robert Richer, the CIA's former deputy director of clandestine operations.

Richer also said he talked Tuesday to John Maguire, who headed the CIA's Iraq Operations Group at the time and who gave Richer "permission to state the following on his behalf: `I never received any instruction from then Chief/NE Rob Richer or any other officer in my chain of command instructing me to fabricate such a letter. Further, I have no knowledge to the origins of the letter and as to how it circulated in Iraq," the statement said.

Suskind claims the White House concocted the fake letter, meant to come from Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, director of Iraqi intelligence under Saddam, in the fall of 2003 to bolster its case for the invasion earlier that year as it was becoming clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq. Those weapons were a chief rationale for the war. The letter was provided to a British journalist by an Iraqi government official, according to the book.

"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001," Suskind wrote. "It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al-Qaida, something the vice president's office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link."

Denying the report, White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said, "The notion that the White House directed anyone to forge a letter from Habbush to Saddam Hussein is absurd."

Fratto said U.S. and other intelligence agencies believed Saddam harbored such weapons and that Saddam had tried to make his neighbors believe he had them. In the end, no such weapons were found, undercutting Bush's main reason to go to war.

"We know now that those estimates were wrong, but they were the estimates we all relied on," Fratto said.

There'd be suspicion if names weren't named...but these guys (bolded in red) came out publicly...

faithful_servant · #4 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

CIA officials deny fake Iraq-al-Qaida link letter

There'd be suspicion if names weren't named...but these guys (bolded in red) came out publicly...

But someone said it in a book, redd. With that kind of credibiltiy it's obvious that it happened and that President Bush is really the anti-Christ and the 2nd coming of Hitler.

(s ometimes there just aren't enough smilies to adequately express myself).

saltwn · #5 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

CIA officials deny fake Iraq-al-Qaida link letter

There'd be suspicion if names weren't named...but these guys (bolded in red) came out publicly...

So the White house denies the charges and two C.I.A. agents deny the White House forged or got them to forge documents.

Doesn't mean it didn't happen. Just means Bush/Chaney has a top notch legal team that sees this as a potential criminal offense.

Do you personally really think this white house is without guilt concerning misleading the public in the direction of war with Iraq? Whether or not the war is justifiable in your mind for other reasons. Do you really believe that?
Answer carefully.

cnredd · #6 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

So the White house denies the charges and two C.I.A. agents deny the White House forged or got them to forge documents.

Doesn't mean it didn't happen. Just means Bush/Chaney has a top notch legal team that sees this as a potential criminal offense.

Do you personally really think this white house is without guilt concerning misleading the public in the direction of war with Iraq? Whether or not the war is justifiable in your mind for other reasons. Do you really believe that?
Answer carefully.

The Russian intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

The Russian intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

The German intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

The British intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

The United Nations reported Iraq had WMDs...

UNSCOM report detailing actions by Iraq to obstruct disarmament...

I guess everyone else was "inconveniently wrong", but only Bush was an all-knowing, evil liar...

And please don't make me pull out the quotes from Democrats both before and after Bush became president...

saltwn · #7 (**permalink**) 08-06-2008, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

The Russian intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

The Russian intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...
You mean the guys who built WMD and sold weapons to Iraq and then maybe stole the WMD (only plutonium by that time) Oh yeah their intelligence can be trusted.

Quote:

(There is some evidence that Saddam could have purchased nuclear technology from Pakistan, through Dr. Khan's network, and that he has tried to buy nuclear weapons or components from China). The war destroyed the technical base for the production. But the highly skilled scientific and technical personnel (over 200) remained in place, dispersed. The regime managed to save their nuclear fuel, many technical means of production and the blueprints of the nuclear weaponization. The after-war international (UN) control proved ineffective. Iraq also saved an essential part of its biological and chemical warfare technology, materials and personnel. Some of the WMDs, materials, specialists from Iraq have been transferred abroad to continue research and to organize the production abroad: mainly to Sudan, Libya and Algeria but also to the neighboring Syria (with a purpose to strengthen Syrian regime's offensive capabilities against Israel).The Iraqi WMDs and the Russian Military Strategy in the Middle East

Same article .....Secret agreements, signed between the Iraqi Intelligence and the Russian GRU, provided for a "clean up" operation, conducted by Russian and Iraqi military personnel, to remove some WMDs, materials for production, technical documentation etc. from Iraq, so that the Saddam regime could announce that Iraq was "WMD free". This operation began after the 1991 Gulf War and lasted until weeks before the outbreak of the 2nd war (March 19-20, 2003).

The German intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

Quote:

Several German intelligence officials responsible for Curveball have now told the LA Times that the Bush administration and the CIA have repeatedly exaggerated his claims and ignored warnings of the BND that the source was unreliable. Recounting his reaction after seeing Powell's United Nations speech one German intelligence officer said: "We were shocked. Mein Gott! We had always told them it was not proven.... It was not hard intelligence." This corroborates reporting by the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit from 2003 and 2004 based on statements of unnamed senior German intelligence officials.German BND claims U.S. exaggerated Iraq WMD claims - Wikinews, the free news source

The British intelligence reported Iraq had WMDs...

Quote:

told Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq that a high-placed Iraqi source said that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence was passed to the US but was buried by the White House, according to a new book.

The book claimed that the former Prime Minister sent a top British spy to the Middle East in 2003 — three months before the invasion — to dig up enough intelligence to avoid war but that President Bush and Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, dismissed any claims or possible evidence that would stop military action. White House 'buried British intelligence on Iraq WMDs' - Times Online

The United Nations reported Iraq had WMDs...

UNSCOM report detailing actions by Iraq to obstruct disarmament...

I guess everyone else was "inconveniently wrong", but only Bush was an all-knowing, evil liar...

And please don't make me pull out the quotes from Democrats both before and after Bush became president...

foundit66 · #8 (**permalink**) 08-14-2008, 06:44 PM

Regarding the "UN" claims...

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

The United Nations reported Iraq had WMDs...
UNSCOM report detailing actions by Iraq to obstruct disarmament...

In fact, U.N. weapons inspectors declared weeks before the invasion that Hussein did not possess WMD. The inspectors publicly lambasted consistently false and misleading U.S. intelligence leading up to the war:

[On March 7, 2003], the head of the IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei, reported that there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any nuclear weapons or was in the process of acquiring them. Mr Blix said: “By then, Mohamed ElBaradei revealed that Niger was not authentic.” British intelligence falsely claimed Iraq had been trying to acquire uranium from Niger. [4/28/05]

So frustrated have the inspectors become that one source has referred to the U.S. intelligence they’ve been getting as “garbage after garbage after garbage.” … The inspectors find themselves caught between the Iraqis, who are masters at the weapons-hiding shell game, and the United States, whose intelligence they’ve found to be circumstantial, outdated or just plain wrong. [2/20/03]

Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix told the U.N. Security Council that his inspection teams had not found any “smoking guns” after visiting some 125 Iraqi sites. [1/9/03]
Think Progress Rice Falsely Claims U.N. Inspectors Thought Saddam Hussein Had WMD

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