More Evidence Of Intel Cherry-Picking During Run-Up To Iraq Debacle

The book that prompted the New York Times to finally come forward with what it knew about Bush's illegal wiretapping program has some interesting things to say with regard to other topics, including this:

A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program.

Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade.

New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. His book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration" describes secret operations of the Bush administration's war on terrorism.

The book reports that "some 30 family members of Iraqis made trips to their native country to contact Iraqi weapons scientists, and all of them reported that the programs had been abandoned." Clearly, the CIA was trolling for evidence that Iraq had ongoing WMD programs, and disregarded the overwelming evidence that these programs had been long abandoned.

Risen's book also describes yet another intelligence screw-up that occurred on Bush's watch:

In another chapter on a "rogue operation," the book said a CIA officer mistakenly sent one of its Iranian agents information that could be used to identify virtually every spy the agency had in Iran. The book said the Iranian was a double agent who turned over the data to Iranian security officials.

The book said the information severely damaged the CIA's Iranian network, and quoted CIA sources as saying several of the U.S. agents were arrested and jailed.

Anyone out there feel safer yet?

By the way, 2180 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Bush's illegal war in Iraq thus far.