I guess this would look bad for the western intelligence agencies...
Frustrated at the failure to find Saddam Hussein's suspected stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, allied intelligence agencies have launched a major effort to determine if they were victims of bogus Iraqi defectors who planted disinformation to mislead the West before the war.The goal, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, "is to see if false information was put out there and got into legitimate channels and we were totally duped on it." He added, "We're reinterviewing all our sources of information on this. This is the entire intelligence community, not just the U.S."
As evidence, officials say former Iraqi intelligence operatives have confirmed since the war that Saddam's regime sent agents disguised as defectors to the West to plant fabricated intelligence. In other cases, Baghdad apparently tricked legitimate defectors into funneling phony tips about weapons production and storage sites.
"Then, because they believe it, they pass polygraph tests ... and the planted information becomes true to the West even if it was all made up to deceive us," the senior intelligence official said.
via the Houston Chronicle
... but wouldn't it have been really, really stupid of Saddam to "dupe" us into invading his country, overthrowing his regime, and killing his sons? Surprise!!
Posted by Alan at August 28, 2003 05:20 PM