Tonight on 60 Minutes, Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA’s Europe division, revealed that in the fall of 2002, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others were told by CIA Director George Tenet that Iraq’s foreign minister — who agreed to act as a spy for the United States — had reported that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction program.
BRADLEY: According to Drumheller, CIA Director George Tenet delivered the news about the Iraqi foreign minister at a high level meeting at the White House. DRUMHELLER: The President, the Vice President, Dr. Rice… BRADLEY: And at that meeting…? DRUMHELLER: They were enthusiastic because they said they were excited that we had a high-level penetration of Iraqis. BRADLEY: And what did this high level source tell you? DRUMHELLER: He told us that they had no active weapons of mass destruction program. BRADLEY: So, in the fall of 2002, before going to war, we had it on good authority from a source within Saddam’s inner circle that he didn’t have an active program for weapons of mass destruction? DRUMHELLER: Yes. BRADLEY: There’s no doubt in your mind about that? DRUMHELLER: No doubt in my mind at all. BRADLEY: It directly contradicts, though, what the President and his staff were telling us. DRUMHELLER: The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy.
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." -- George W. Bush Speech to UN General Assembly September 12, 2002
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." -- George W. Bush State of the Union Address January 28, 2003
"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have." -- George W. Bush Radio Address February 8, 2003
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." -- George W. Bush Address to the Nation March 17, 2003
" We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them." -- George W. Bush NBC Interview April 24, 2003
" We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so." -- George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters May 3, 2003
"I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program." -- George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters May 6, 2003
It is funny that Naji Sabri the chief source of US intel says this in July 2002.
So Naji supplying info to US is good.
Inspectors supplying info is no good?
Strange!
CBS should have quoted Naji’s public statements as well. Seems like they got too excited about lynching Bush, While they completely ignored Naji. Is this a case of “single source” info?
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Iraq: US wants inspector to gather intelligence information for attack
**Iraq-*USA, Politics, 7/31/2002 *
Iraq has stressed that the US wants to the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq in order to update its intelligence information in order to launch a likely attack against Iraq.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday in Baghdad, the Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri said that Washington wants to control Iraq’s oil which is the second largest oil reserves in the world, noting that the UN inspectors will come to this country " Iraq," having among them “American, Israeli and British spies.” Sabri stressed that those “spies will update information about the civilian and economic firms as well as the security and military sites and will give these lists to the American intelligence and military departments to be used in attacking Iraq.”
He added that any talks with the UN over the return of UN weapons inspectors should be also centered on lifting the sanctions imposed since 1990, and on the “no fly zones” imposed by the west over southern and northern Iraq in 1991. He called for dealing with all issues including the violation of the American and British military planes of the Iraqi national security and the tremendous damages caused by Britain and the US against Iraq.
Sabri said that the Iraqis will resist any American military attack in defense of their country’s freedom and independence.
Worth noting, that the previous head of the US inspection team, part of the UN inspectors that were expelled by Iraq, had admitted that the US used the inspectors for spying activities and information with Israel.