The Millennial Star

Intelligence and the Iraq War

From Bob Woodward’s Obama’s Wars:

Hayden [the out going CIA director] met Panetta [the new one for the Obama administration] for a last heart to heart. He wanted to clear the air, correct the record as he understood it. “Leon,” Hayden said, “I’ve been reading some of your writings while out of government. You claim the Bush administration cherry picked the intelligence for Iraqi WMD.”

Panetta had blamed a special unit setup by Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.

“That’s not true. We got it wrong, okay? It was a clear swing and a miss. It’s our fault.”

Panetta said he got it. There had been a catastrophic intelligence failure at the agency he was taking over.

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