IT TOOK ONLY A FEW MINUTES for media outlets to disseminate headlines about how the recent Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report comparing pre-war intelligence claims against post-war findings was a refutation of the stated reasons for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Focusing on the conclusions of the multi-section report, most news accounts walked down a checklist of the “lies” allegedly perpetrated by the Bush administration.
But the SSCI report is of limited use for anyone seriously attempting to understand what was–and was not–going on in pre-war Iraq. The report is limited in scope, comparing primarily the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq with the findings of the Iraqi Survey Group and a small set of supplemental materials.
