Re: Re[2]: French ruling party having a riot on the Internet

[Nick FitzGerald <nick () virus-l demon co uk>]

Paul Schmehl to Pierre Vandevenne:

> > A) there was absolutely no intelligence supporting the war. This is
> > something some Americans seem to discover now. It was generally accepted
> > here.
> Sorry, but that is historical revisionism.  *All* the major intellgence
> agencies, French , British, Italian, German, American and Egyptian, were
> in agreement that Iraq had an ongoing WMD program.  Before the war there
> was no dispute on that issue.  The *people* may not have believed it, but
> the intelligence agencies and their governments certainly did.

Now, _that_ is historical revisionism.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is abundantly clear that either 
_some_ members of some intelligence agencies grossly over-stated the 
"evidence" they had for stating the position that Iraq had an ongoing 
WMD program, or that they never actually said/believed that Iraq had an 
ongoing WMD program but highly selectively chosen snippets of 
"evidence" lifted from sources from those agencies were stated as such 
evidence by other agencies (mostly the US and UK agencies).

I agree with Paul that Pierre overstates the situation by saying "there 
was absolutely no evidence supporting the war".  On balance, there was 
never anywhere near enough evidence to _justify_ a _legal_ war, but 
there was _some_, very, very, very weak evidence.  Of course, on 
balance, it was grossly outweighed by the negative evidence and the 
vast lack of evidence.  Further, it was obvious _at the time the 
decision to go to war was made_ that the negative evidence was mounting 
very rapidly and the hasty decision made by the Bush regime, backed by 
puppet-Tony had to be made then before any hope that even most extreme 
Texan red-necks would keep supporting the decision would fade...

It is a sad reflection on your country, Paul, that its "intelligence" 
agencies can now be so easily and apparently willingly bent to produce 
palpable rubbish to support the political ends of the current regime, 
rather than actively ensuring that the real situation is accurately and 
reliably porttrayed to the administration _and the people_.  If I were 
a US citizen I'd be grossly offended at the lack of accountability for 
the rampant misuse of my tax dollars on what is laughingly called the 
country's "intelligence agencies".


Regards,

Nick FitzGerald

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