use of explosives

Torture Leads To lying Leads To War

The administrations defense for "rendition" has taken another strong hit.
This morning's

New York Times gives us proof of that:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar
assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made
by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated
them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government
officials.

The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most
specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only
after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January
2002, in a process known as rendition.

The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad
intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's
heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda
members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts.
The Bush administration used Mr. Libi's accounts as the basis for its prewar
claims, now discredited, that ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda included
training in explosives and chemical weapons.

[..]

More "Cooked" Intelligence Being Reported Tomorrow

Now that phase two of the investigation into the intelligence failures
leading up to the Iraq war is to be completed, we are starting to see some
documents come out that were classified before. One document in particular has
been obtained by the New York Times and will appear in Sunday's edition.
Thankfully it is available online tonight.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 - A high Qaeda official in American custody was
identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration
began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq
trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according
to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.

The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, said it was
probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally
misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for Al
Qaeda's work with illicit weapons.

The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts
voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility.
Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney,
Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials
repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was
training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.

Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who
said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned
that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and
gases."

The newly declassified portions of the document were made available by
Senator Carl M. Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed
Services Committee

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