In a June 13th article in OnLine Journal, Jason Leopold discussed the specific ways in which the White House had been silencing intelligence and weapons experts for months, back as far as late 2002, whose opinions weren't in line with the story this administration was determined to tell.
Leopold's major source is David Albright, a former UN Weapons Inspector.
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June 13, 2003—Six months before the United States was dead-set on invading Iraq to rid the country of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, experts in the field of nuclear science warned officials in the Bush administration that intelligence reports showing Iraq was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons was unreliable and that the country did not pose an imminent threat to its neighbors in the Middle East or the U.S.
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With the likelihood of finding WMD in Iraq becoming increasingly remote, new information, such as documents and interviews provided by Albright and other weapons experts, prove that the White House did not suffer so much from an intelligence failure on Iraq's WMD, but instead shows how the Bush administration embellished reams of intelligence and relied on murky intelligence in order to get Congress and the public to back the war. That may explain why it is becoming so difficult to find WMD: Because it's entirely likely that the weapons don't exist.
"A critical question is whether the Bush administration has deliberately misled the public and other governments in playing a 'nuclear card' that it knew would strengthen public support for war," Albright said in a March 10 assessment of the CIA's intelligence, which is posted on the ISIS website.
Note that Albright was saying this back in March. The whole article is well worth reading for its useful reminders of how much there was to notice months before this July, and a useful reminder, too, that the concern of most Democrats, even ones who ultimately voted for the "war" resolution, about the administration's indifference to evidence, was being expressed months before this President was finally able to take the country to war.
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In secret intelligence briefings last September on the Iraqi threat, House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said administration officials were presenting "embellishments" on information long known about Iraq.
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In true Bush fashion, however, the administration had long believed it was better to strike first and ask questions later.
When Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who sits on the intelligence committee, sent Bush a letter on Sept. 17, 2002, requesting he urge the CIA to produce a National Intelligence Estimate, a report that would have showed exactly how much of a threat Iraq posed, National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said in the post 9–11 world the U.S. cannot wait for intelligence because Iraq is too much of a threat to the U.S.
I can't help thinking that the alternate dialogue being carried on through-out the blogisphere and on cites like Online Journal, Consortium.com, Buzzflash are finally making life a whole lot harder than the self-intoxicating triumphalism of this administration had ever led them to expect