US: During the first Gulf War the director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency had a slogan on his wall that said "Tell 'em what they need to hear, not what they want to hear." It was a warning to subordinates not to spin their findings to suit their political masters, writes Conor O'Clery.
It is presumably no longer there. The American intelligence community is in ferment over the cooking of intelligence to provide information that the Bush administration wanted to hear concerning Iraq, according to a group of intelligence agents called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. It was formed in January by about 25 intelligence veterans who said they could not stand by in silence as US credibility was frittered away.
This month they wrote to President Bush to warn of the "growing mistrust and cynicism" about intelligence cited by the administration to justify the war. They picked out the key judgement of an October 4th report to Congress by the National Intelligence Council, an interagency body under the CIA, that "most analysts assess Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons programme".
This gave substance to a warning by Mr Bush three days later that "the smoking gun could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." The spectre of Saddam Hussein armed with nuclear weapons was the crucial element in convincing many members of Congress to vote four days after that to give war powers to the President. This was one example of a "crass cave-in" by the intelligence community, the group said, as the preponderant view, then as now, of nuclear experts in US intelligence was that Iraq had no significant nuclear programme.
In the letter, signed by among others Raymond McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran who once briefed former President George Bush, they also recalled correspondence in the possession of the CIA last autumn purporting to show that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger. This was used by the President in his State of the Union address but turned out to be bogus, as some CIA analysts had warned. The ex-CIA officials said they suspected that "the use of forged materials was deliberate."
A former CIA analyst, Patrick Eddington, has claimed from multiple sources inside the agency that pressure to conform or not contradict the administration's positions has "corrupted the process of information gathering and analysis". The failure to find unconventional weapons or real Iraqi links to al-Qaeda has reinforced suspicions in Congress that the war was waged under a false pretext, and that Americans and US allies were manipulated.
A CIA spokesman dismissed the group's claims as out of date, and misinformed.
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At the White House briefing on Thursday, the question of distorted intelligence was taken up by Helen Thomas, the 82-year-old columnist who has been a scourge of presidents since JFK and for four decades was given the honour of finishing every presidential press conference with the words, "Thank you, Mr President" - until George Bush froze her out in March.
Ms Thomas asked press secretary Ari Fleischer if the President was satisfied with the pre-war intelligence. He was indeed satisfied, Mr Fleischer replied, saying they had found two (empty) mobile labs "that can only be used for the purpose of producing biological weapons". (CIA officials on Wednesday said the evidence was not conclusive and that the equipment could be used to produce hydrogen for artillery balloons).
Helen Thomas shot back: "We go to war for two trucks?"
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In a speech in Arkansas on May 5th President Bush used the phrase "not a problem anymore" to refer to al-Qaeda terrorists. This was picked up by talk shows and by US and foreign newspapers, including The Irish Times, after the bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco showed that al-Qaeda was indeed still a problem. However according to the text supplied by the Federal News Service, Mr Bush was apparently referring to dead or captured terrorists.
For the record what he said was: "al Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely, being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore. (Cheers, applause.)"
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New York is becoming what the Daily News calls "Nit Pick City".
Residents are being ticketed for breaking by-laws no one knew ever existed. Crystal Rivera, six months pregnant, was given a $50 ticket for taking a breather on subway stairs. Pedro Nazario (86), was fined for feeding pidgeons in Manhattan.
A Bronx man was ticketed for sitting on a milk crate. A Manhattan woman had to pay a penalty for using the wrong coloured rubbish recycling bags. A Staten Island man was fined for the fading print on his car inspection certificate. Visitors should also be warned: a sleepy tourist who leaned onto an adjacent seat in a nearly empty subway train was fined for occupying two seats.
Officials deny that police have been ordered to collect revenue because of the budget crisis, but few believe Mayor Michael Bloomberg's protest that the nickle-and-dime operation is concerned only with the quality of life.
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Mayor Bloomberg allowed his official residence to be used last weekend by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to marry his companion Judith Nathan. Bloomberg conducted the ceremony himself in front of 400 guests including Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump, during which Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, sang Ave Maria.
The choice of Gracie Mansion had particular significance for Ms Nathan. She was legally barred from the residence during the mayor's last term by Giuliani's former wife Donna Hanover, after she began appearing publicly with the mayor. Giuliani's marriage to Hanover ended last July.
Ms Hanover has since reunited with her old high school sweetheart, and they also plan to marry, but not presumably in Gracie Mansions.