(New Republic) Eli J. Lake - The Iraq hawks running the Pentagon and staffing the office of the vice president long ago lost faith in the CIA’s analysis on Iraq. So they set up their own network for analyzing and collecting intelligence regarding Iraq and have been presenting it to the president themselves. The result is that Bush has for months been receiving two assessments of the facts on the ground - one (more cautious) from the CIA and the other (more optimistic) from the Iraq hawks. Paul Wolfowitz finds himself amid a loose network of neocons inside and outside government - this time including his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John R. Bolton; Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle; and Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff and national security adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - arguing for an aggressive foreign policy posture. Wolfowitz and his allies have put together a portrait of Iraq's military might and political stability that diverges dramatically from the CIA's.
2002-09-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive