Just in case you haven't seen this (from the Guardian):
Brose, 30, who extracts information from detainees in Iraq, said: 'They push a lot for us to establish a link with Iran. They have pre-categories for us to go through, and by the sheer volume of categories there's clearly a lot more for Iran than there is for other stuff. Of all the recent requests I've had, I'd say 60 to 70 per cent are about Iran.
'It feels a lot like, if you get something and Iran's not involved, it's a let down.' He added: 'I've had people say to me, "They're really pushing the Iran thing. ..."'
He denied ever being asked to fabricate evidence, adding: 'We're not asked to manufacture information, we're asked to find it. But if a detainee wants to tell me what I want to hear so he can get out of jail... you know what I'm saying.'
Other military intelligence officials in Iraq refused to comment, but one said: 'The message is, "Got to find a link with Iran, got to find a link with Iran." It's sickening.'
Gosh, why does this all sound strangely familiar?
For months, a few C.I.A. analysts have privately expressed concerns to colleagues and Congressional officials that they have faced pressure in writing intelligence reports to emphasize links between Saddam Hussein's government and Al Qaeda.
As the White House contended that links between Mr. Hussein and Al Qaeda justified military action against Iraq, these analysts complained that reports on Iraq have attracted unusually intense scrutiny from senior policy makers within the Bush administration.
''A lot of analysts have been upset about the way the Iraq-Al Qaeda case has been handled,'' said one intelligence official familiar with the debate.
(That last selection is from a New York Times article that was completed before the Iraq attack, but held back by the Times and only published on page B10 on March 23, 2003--three days after the invasion had started.)
This is when the Cassandra complex starts kicking in with a vengeance, just as it did in the months leading up to March of 2003. On the plus side, there are many more US citizens this time around who'll be skeptical of what they hear from the Bush administration, and mainstream media outlets (in the UK, at least) have started much earlier to look into the pressure to tailor the intelligence to the desired policy. Whether or not any of that will make a difference in the outcome is another matter entirely, though.
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