Bush admin accused of 'hyping' Iraq intelligence

posted by ewing2001 on Monday May 26, @02:38AM

Biden: We hyped al-Qaeda

ABC AM Transcript

Monday, 26 May , 2003

From Washington, John Shovelan reports.

JOHN SHOVELAN: Democrats believe the Bush administration may have exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq or the intelligence was faulty, or it was deceived.

JOSEPH BIDEN: I do think that we hyped nuclear, we hyped al-Qaeda, we hyped the ability to disperse and use these weapons.

JOHN SHOVELAN: Democrat Senator, Joe Biden, isn't the only member of Congress casting doubt on the veracity of the administration's case.

Jay Rockefeller, the senior Democrat of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says he was beginning to believe the intelligence provided to the administration was not sound. He says it's now up to the Congress to find out if that was deliberate or otherwise.

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JAY ROCKEFELLER: I think the question has to be asked. I mean, I think there are either, either of two possibilities, and one and hopefully this is not the case, and you certainly cannot assume it's the case that they were intentionally misled, and the other is that they just misread it.

JOHN SHOVELAN: And House Member, Jane Harman, says US allies are also owed an explanation.

JANE HARMAN: It was the moral basis for the war. I think the world is owed an accounting.

JOHN SHOVELAN: But while Congressional and CIA reviews of their Iraq intelligence are underway, it's still full steam ahead on more dramatic Middle East policy based on US intelligence.

The Washington Post reports that on Tuesday, senior officials will meet at the White House to discuss a new strategy for dealing with Iran. On the agenda is a policy to aggressively destabilise the Iranian Government. The meeting has arisen out of US intelligence intercepts which allege senior al-Qaeda members in Iran orchestrated the May 12 bombings in Saudi Arabia...."

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