By By Brian Bohl
On the heels of the first indictment of a White House staffer in over 130 years, President Bush’s administration continues to cement itself as the biggest bust since the 2001-05 Yankees.
Sunday’s New York Times explains how the White House used information from a high-ranking Al-Qaeda prisoner named Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi over objections from the Defense Intelligence Agency.
If accurate, this would be another case of the executive branch using specious claims from unreliable sources to justify the invasion of Iraq. The case is similar to how the United States treated unverifiable statements from Ahmed Chalabi, the current interim minister of oil and a deputy prime minister in Iraq, about Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2003.
The DIA intelligence report from February 2002 stated that al-Libi, “was intentionally misleading the debriefers” about Iraq training Al-Qaeda members in the use of biological and chemical weapons-nearly a year before the offensive in Iraq was launched.
Bush and the rest of the Neocons subsequently treated al-Libi as they did with Chalabi. They ignored the problems of credibility because the testimony both individuals gave coincided with the case for strong military intervention.
Despite objections from government officals more than eight months prior, Bush chose to accept the information given by al-Libi as the truth, citing his claims in a speech in Ohio in October 2002 when he said, “we’ve learned that Iraq has trained Al-Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases.”
Bush did not add a disclaimer to this statement. He neither mentioned the skeptical advisors in the Defense Department, nor cited any physical evidence used to support those claims.
Al-Libi took back his claims in early 2004, which spurred the Central Intelligence Agency to “recall all intelligence reports based on his statements.” This action in effect disavowed any claims made by al-Libi, nullifying a key prewar intelligence justification for military action in Iraq.
The White House has refused to comment on the situation since then. It is becoming clearer with each new revelation that war was not the last resort, but a very eager first option for Bush. Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell both used al-Libi’s testimony as proof that Iraq was training Al-Qaeda members and thus a major player in the war against terrorism. In large public speeches this information was presented as irrefutable fact, not the questioned testimony of one particular detainee.
Much like Chalabi’s statements, the use of al-Libi’s words misled the American public. The Bush administration probably did believe that both of these men were telling the truth, but to present the information as the objective truth instead of unsubstantiated hearsay was wrong.
With Bush’s poll numbers plummet thanks to the Libby indictment, the FEMA disaster and the 2,000 dead U.S. soldiers, this news will only weaken a presidency that looks to be mired in lame-duck status with three years still to go on a second term. n
