Bush admits Iraq intelligence was wrong-- yes, WRONG!!

Bush admits Iraq intelligence was wrong

Staff and agencies
Wednesday December 14, 2005

Guardian Unlimited
The US president, George Bush, today admitted much of the intelligence used as the basis for invading Iraq had been "wrong" - but defended his decision to go to war because it removed Saddam Hussein.

In a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, in Washington, Mr Bush also pledged that US troops would remain in Iraq until "victory is achieved".

The speech was the fourth and last in a series aimed at bolstering flagging support for the Iraqi conflict.

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Mr Bush said. "As president, I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."

However, he added: "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat, and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power."

The intelligence Mr Bush could have been referring to may be the pre-war information gathered from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a Libyan, who claimed al-Qaida was linked to Iraq.

Mr Libi later said he made his most specific claims whilst in Egyptian custody in a bid to avoid "harsh treatment".

In a CIA report published in the New York Times last week, unnamed officials admitted that Mr Libi been subjected to rendition when he told his interrogators that Iraq had trained al-Qaida operatives.

Before the Iraq war, the Bush administration frequently cited Mr Libi's information as "credible evidence".

On the eve of Iraq's first parliamentary elections, the US president pledged to solve the previous problems with his administration's intelligence capabilities.

He was adamant that US troops would remain in Iraq until a "free and democratic" country was in place. "We cannot and will not leave Iraq until victory is achieved," he said.

Mr Bush reiterated his hopes that an Iraq with a functioning democracy and thriving economy would be a model for other nations in the Middle East.

In the Senate, 40 Democrats and one independent signed a letter to Mr Bush in which they urged him to be more open with the Iraqi and US public.

The letter urged the administration to "tell the leaders of all groups and political parties in Iraq that they need to make the compromises necessary to achieve the broad-based and sustainable political settlement that is essential for defeating the insurgency in Iraq within the schedule they set for themselves".

It adds that Mr Bush must also present "a plan that identifies the remaining political, economic, and military benchmarks that must be met and a reasonable schedule to achieve them".

The president responded by outlining what constituted victory in Iraq and when US troops could begin returning home.

"Victory will be achieved by meeting certain objectives: when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can protect their own people, and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot attacks against our country," he said.

"These objectives, not timetables set by politicians in Washington, will drive our force levels in Iraq."