Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction Found

Somehow I missed this little noteworthy tidbit:

"They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) units out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence," he said.

Shaw has dealt with weapons-related issues and export controls as a U.S. government official for 30 years, and was serving as deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security when the events he described today occurred.

He called the evacuation of Saddam's WMD stockpiles "a well-orchestrated campaign using two neighboring client states with which the Russian leadership had a long time security relationship."

It has been my belief that something like this happened. Why isn't this front page news considering that "Bush lied" has been the mantra forever? And the Bush administration gets strung up because of spy agency politics that the administration obviously allows even at great American intel harm:

But when Shaw passed on his information to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and others within the U.S. intelligence community, he was stunned by their response.

"My report on the convoys was brushed off as ‘Israeli disinformation,'" he said.

One month later, Shaw learned that the DIA general counsel complained to his own superiors that Shaw had eaten from the DIA "rice bowl." It was a Washington euphemism that meant he had commited the unpardonable sin of violating another agency's turf.

The CIA responded in even more diabolical fashion. "They trashed one of my Brits and tried to declare him persona non grata to the intelligence community," Shaw said. "We got constant indicators that Langley was aggressively trying to discredit both my Ukranian-American and me in Kiev," in addition to his other sources.

But Shaw's information had not originated from a casual contact. His Ukranian-American aid was a personal friend of David Nicholas, a Western ambassador in Kiev, and of Igor Smesko, head of Ukrainian intelligence.

What a den of vipers the intelligence agencies are these days. If Valerie "I don't know if I was covert or not" Plame is the best and brightest, we are definitely in trouble. Politics and jockeying and the luxury of pointing the finger at Bush if He gets the intelligence wrong when the intelligence agencies ignore worthwhile intelligence because they play politics or protect turf.

There is a lot more at the link--Saddam's on-going nuclear program up through 2000, for one important example. The problem with these agencies is that they spend too much time marking territory and not nearly enough time learning everything about the territory they need to know. Intelligence does not equal smart.