BadGimp

Some CIA Iraq analysts felt pressure
Cheney, senior aide made multiple trips to agency

By Walter Pincus and Dana Priest
THE WASHINGTON POST

June 5 — Vice President Cheney and his most senior aide made multiple trips to the CIA over the past year to question analysts studying Iraq’s weapons programs and alleged links to al Qaeda, creating an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration’s policy objectives, according to senior intelligence officials.

WITH CHENEY taking the lead in the administration last August in advocating military action against Iraq by claiming it had weapons of mass destruction, the visits by the vice president and his chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, “sent signals, intended or otherwise, that a certain output was desired from here,” one senior agency official said yesterday.

HANDS-ON ROLE
Other agency officials said they were not influenced by the visits from the vice president’s office, and some said they welcomed them. But the disclosure of Cheney’s unusual hands-on role comes on the heels of mounting concern from intelligence officials and members of Congress that the administration may have exaggerated intelligence it received about Iraq to build a case for war.

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drip, drip, drip

BadGimp

posted by BadGimp @ 8:52 AM