Originally posted by inimalist
One of the recent waterboarding admission by the Americans was of an Jihadi (al libbi comes to mind for some reason, though I should really know the name...).It was through him that the "proofs" of chemicals and what have you were given. Powel clearly was skeptical of Iraq, but was given the information obtained through torture as though it were the best info the CIA had. He has come out and said that the UN speech was the most embarrassing moment of his career.
Complicit is too strong of a word. It is very hard to hold someone responsible for not knowing something which people were actively against their knowing. The same as Clinton voting for the war. In both cases, these people were lied to and completely misled.
There is an argument for them not stepping far enough outside of the box or trusting the CIA more than foreign intelligence, but I wouldn't say for complicity.
There's a book by James Risen titled "State of War" that explains in very intricate detail what the CIA did and did not know. ( I read a few others but this one did the best job explaining)
The main informant was some guy code-named "Curveball." Long story short, he had close ties to the Hussein regime BUT he was in custody of Germans. The Germans would not given him up so all their information was not even through direct interview. Stuff like the "mobile biological factories" (or something like that) where simply tankers filled with helium.
The Germans told the CIA NOT TO INCLUDE THE INFORMATION FORM CURVEBALL IN THE REPORT TO THE U.N. Oh well.
Edit: Forgot to mention that Powell also knew about the fallacies. A whole section of the book is dedicated to Powell, and the "betrayal" of the Bush administration.