Bush Cherry Picked Reason For War

Paul Pillar, a former CIA National Intelligence officer with 28 years' experience, has set the cat amongst the pigeons in an article that he has written for the journal Foreign Affairs.

In the article he alleges that the Bush administration selectively chose parts of intelligence (ie "cherry picked") to justify its decision, already made, to invade Iraq.

The Administration has repeatedly denied manipulating intelligence.

Vice President Dick Cheney said last year:

"What is not legitimate, and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible, is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence."

Intelligence officers have insisted that they did not distort the intelligence to satisfy the administration.

In a VOA interview, Paul Pillar alleges that Administration officials wanted to demonstrate a substantive link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida. He notes that no such links existed.

Quote:

"The main thing that happened there, particularly with reference to this issue of, was there a relationship between the Saddam regime and al-Qaida -- was a selective use of bits and pieces of reporting to try to build the case that in this case there was some kind of alliance without really reflecting the analytic judgment of the intelligence community that there was not."

Pillar claims that, whilst there was no direct pressure to alter intelligence analyses, the Administration's determination to go to war created a climate that cut off objectivity and stopped dissenting views among intelligence analysts.

Quote:

"If, instead, the analyst is operating in an environment in which he knows decisions have already been made, in which he knows the policymaker has a particular preference for what would suit his purposes in mustering support for that decision..well, that's an entirely different sort of thing."

The question that the American people need to ask is this:

Did President Bush take us to war to avenge his father, and use "exaggerated" intelligence to justify that decision?