Revisiting Prewar Intelligence

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In case anyone’s missed it, this Josh Marshall post is worth reading. During the run-up everyone’s favorite quagmire on the Tigris, apparently, an Iraqi foreign minister had defected and told the CIA that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs. But the White House took no interest in all of this; a non-existent weapons program doesn’t exactly bolster the case for war, after all.

But the remarkable thing here is that none of the authoritative-sounding commissions that investigated whether the prewar intelligence was botched or mishandled or distorted looked into this incident. Or rather, they were told about it and ignored it entirely.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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