White House Leaked Classified Intelligence to Make its Case for War

White House Leaked Classified Intelligence to Make its
Case for War
by David Swanson
Tue Dec 27, 2005 at 11:17:34 PM PDT
A new report looks into instances in which the Bush
Administration leaked classified information to
support its case that Iraq was a threat to the United
States.

While that case was, of course, ridiculous and the
information falsified, the leaking of it was illegal.
And the leaks appear to have been part of a
coordinated effort. Immediately following important
leaks, top administration officials appeared on talk
shows to discuss information that they could not have
legally discussed had it not appeared in a newspaper
that morning.

David Swanson's diary :: ::
Congressman John Conyers has just released an
extensive report titled "The Constitution in Crisis:
The Downing Street Minutes and Deception,
Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Cover-ups in
the Iraq War." Pages 73 - 81 address the Bush
Administration's claims regarding aluminum tubes
allegedly acquired by Iraq for the purpose of
developing nuclear weapons.

On page 78, the report notes: "Our investigation has
also found that classified intelligence information
supporting the Bush Administration's position
regarding the aluminum tubes was leaked to the press.
For example, on Sunday, September 8, 2002, the lead
story in The New York Times, written by Judith Miller
and Michael R. Gordon, quotes 'anonymous'
Administration officials as stating that 'Iraq has
stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has
embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an
atomic bomb.'"

The headline of that article was "U.S. Says Hussein
Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts."

Conyers' report continues: "The article goes on to
source 'administration officials' for the proposition
that '[i]n the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy
thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which
American officials believe were intended as components
of centrifuges to enrich uranium' and that '[t]he
diameter, thickness and other technical specifications
of the aluminum tubes had persuaded American
intelligence experts that they were meant for Iraq's
nuclear program.'"

So, someone in the Administration was leaking
classified information. Of course, it was false
information, but that made it all the more damaging.
But who was the leaker(s)?

According to Conyers' report, "Subsequent media
accounts have traced the story, at least in part, to
Paul Wolfowitz:

"'In the summer of 2002, [Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul] Wolfowitz convened a secret meeting [concerning
the tubes] in his office with Francis Brooke, the
I.N.C. adviser, and Khidir Hamza, a former chief of
Saddam's nuclear program, who had defected to America
in 1994 . . . Wolfowitz circulated his conclusions to
his administration allies. A few days later, the story
of the "nuclear" tubes was leaked to The New York
Times, where it landed on the front page.'

"On the CNN Documentary, Dead Wrong, an anonymous
source characterized the dissemination of this biased
and slanted information to Miller and Gordon as
'official leaking': 'I would call it official leaking
because I think these were authorized conversations
between the press and members of the intelligence
community that further misreported the nature of the
intelligence community's disagreement on this issue.'

Of course, a front page story in the New York Times
gets everyone's attention, and - if the lies are
glaring enough - can lead to a reporter resigning in
disgrace. But the Bush Administration has often
promoted stories into the "mainstream" media by first
establishing them in the super-right-wing outlets.

"The Constitution in Crisis" continues: "Our
investigation has also learned that administration
officials appear to have leaked classified information
to the press well before the New York Times article. A
July 29, 2002, article in the Washington Times, titled
'Iraq Seeks Steel for Nukes' reported:

"'Procurement agents from Iraq's covert nuclear-arms
program were detected as they tried to purchase
stainless-steel tubing, uniquely used in gas
centrifuges and a key component in making the material
for nuclear bombs, from an unknown supplier, said
administration officials familiar with intelligence
reports . . . U.S. intelligence agencies believe the
tubing is an essential component of Iraq's plans to
enrich radioactive uranium to the point where it could
be used to fashion a nuclear bomb.'"

With impeccable timing, on the eve of the first
anniversary of the September 11th attacks, top Bush
officials appeared on the Sunday talk shows to discuss
the aluminum tube story that someone among them had
just planted in the New York Times.

Knight Ridder explained how this worked: "[the leaks]
appearance in the nation's most influential paper also
gave Cheney and Rice an opportunity to discuss the
matter the same day on the Sunday television talk
shows. They could discuss the article, but otherwise
they wouldn't have been able to talk about classified
intelligence in public." ("CIA leak illustrates
selective use of intelligence on Iraq [The Aluminum
Tubes]," by Jonathan S. Landay, Knight Ridder
Newspapers.)

And who can forget the horrifying comments that the
Bush Administration made?

Condoleezza Rice: "[Iraq has obtained] high quality
aluminum tubes that are only really suited for nuclear
weapons programs, centrifuge programs" and "We don't
want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
-- CNN Late Edition (CNN television broadcast, Sept.
8, 2002).

Vice President Dick Cheney: "I do know with absolutely
certainty that he is using his procurement system to
acquire the equipment he needs to enrich uranium to
build a nuclear weapon"
-- Meet the Press (NBC television broadcast, Sept. 8,
2002).

Donald Rumsfeld: "Imagine a September 11 with weapons
of mass destruction."
-- Face the Nation (CBS television broadcast, Sept. 8,
2002).



Tags: Iraq, War Lies, Leaks, George W. Bush, John
Conyers, Recommended, Propaganda, treason (all tags)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/28/11734/628