"This War Was Not Necessary"
AThe quote above is from a 61-page study, "WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications," released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on January 7. Other highlights:
-- "There was and is no solid evidence of a cooperative relationship between Saddam's government and Al Queda."
-- "The dramatic shift between prior intelligence assessments and the October 2003 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), together with the creation of an independent intelligence agency at the Pentagon and other steps, suggest the the intelligence community began to be unduly influence by policymakers' views sometime in 2002."
-- "Administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile programs ...."