WHAT ABOUT DICK? CIA GETS SOLE BLAME FOR WMD LAPSE

It’s the CIA’s fault. That’s the long-​​and-​​short of for­mer chief weapons inspec­tor David Kay’s inter­view in the New York Times today. He says the intel­li­gence agency failed to pick up signs of Iraq’s inter­nal chaos, which blocked progress towards nuclear, bio­log­i­cal, and chem­i­cal arms.
Now, it’s true that American intel­li­gence had been say­ing for years that Iraq had WMD stock­piles. But isn’t it just a bit overly-​​simple to blame the CIA?
After all, there have been many, many reports that our pal Dick Cheney and his cronies pres­sured CIA spooks into pump­ing up the WMD threat. Shouldn’t they get skew­ered, too?
THERE’S MORE: Reader MS points out that in his inter­view with the Times, Kay makes sure to say, “I never got any pres­sure to find a cer­tain out­come.” Sure he didn’t.
Slate’s Fred Kaplan has more on Kay’s “Art of Camouflage.”

January 26th, 2004 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.