2007年VOA标准英语-Alternative Intelligence on Iraq Called Dubious

By Gary Thomas
Washington
09 February 2007

The controversy¹ over the Bush Administration's pre-war intelligence on Iraq was further fuelled Friday by an internal Pentagon critique of the work of a little-known Defense² Department office.  As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, the report underscores the bureaucratic³ rivalries⁴ among the intelligence agencies and the danger of politicizing intelligence analyses.

Former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith

When Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith disseminated⁵ his own intelligence analysis on Iraq in the leadup to the war, was he acting⁶ as an advocate for war with Iraq?  Or was he simply presenting alternative views to the top policymakers?

The Pentagon Inspector⁷ General's report says Feith's office was predisposed to trying to prove a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.  The intelligence community's collective judgment⁸ was that that claim was dubious⁹, and the assertion was later discredited¹⁰.  Nevertheless, some administration officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney, cited the alleged¹¹ link in public statements before the war.  Pre-war intelligence that Iraq possessed¹² weapons of mass destruction also turned out to be wrong.

William Nolte, former deputy assistant director for analysis and production at the CIA, says policymakers in fact should get alternative views, just as you might get a second doctor's opinion on a medical diagnosis¹³.  But, he adds, there are pitfalls¹⁴ in doing so.

"If I'm the chief executive of anything these days, or I'm the president of the United States, I've put people under me to filter information on my behalf, because I can't look at it all," he said.  "And if in the end the sense is, the guy who is supposed to be being my filter is in his own way an advocate to the degree that he is not giving me the other opinions, boy, I've got a real problem."

That is exactly what happened, says Acting Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble.  He told the Senate Armed Services Committee there was nothing inherently illegal or unauthorized in Feith's actions.  It was simply that what Feith was presenting, Gimble said, was one-sided and at odds¹⁵ with most of what was coming from the intelligence agencies.

"The counter-balance of the full picture, they didn't identify that," he noted¹⁶.  "So they just presented what they had and they didn't recognize that there was significant disagreement with the consensus¹⁷ within the intelligence community on most of the 26 points that they raised."

Lawrence Wilkerson was chief of staff to Colin Powell when Powell was secretary of state.  He saw the 48-page analysis produced by Feith's office as he prepared Secretary Powell's critical speech to the United Nations on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction and its alleged links to al-Qaida.  Wilkerson says even Vice-President Dick Cheney's then-chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, likened it to a menu.  After reviewing it, Wilkerson says, his team discarded it.

"Well, it came over from the vice-president's office to the secretary [of state] to me, and I took it out to the CIA with my task force," he explained.  "And we in the first day discarded it entirely¹⁸ because it was unsupported, unsourced, and it was clear to us that it was just a concoction¹⁹ of - well, Scooter Libby himself actually supposedly told the secretary that it was a Chinese menu from which you could pick and choose what you needed.  Well, that's not what we needed."

Feith himself, who no longer works in government, could not be reached for comment.  But the inspector general's summary released Friday quotes him as saying that his office's actions did not constitute intelligence activities.  He also told the Washington Post newspaper that he was not producing "alternative intelligence assessments²⁰."

Larry Wilkerson agrees that the Feith's Office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy was not doing alternative intelligence.  He also agrees that the president and his aides have every right to seek other sources of information.  But, he says, Feith's office strayed into the role of advocate.

"I can understand the military and the DOD's [Department of Defense's] reluctance²¹ to accept any opinions from the CIA," he said.  "But to set up an alternative community with the DOD that was not even affiliated²² with military intelligence personnel, or at least not directly - as I saw it, it was an entity²³ all unto itself designed principally not so much to put together intelligence as to put together propaganda."

Asked about the issue, White House spokesman Dana Perino said the Bush Administration has initiated²⁴ reforms to ensure there is no repeat of the flawed intelligence that has haunted the U.S. venture into Iraq.

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 bureaucratic   

adj.官僚的，繁文缛节的

参考例句：

• The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
• In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔，也必须通过繁琐的手续。

4 rivalries   

n.敌对，竞争，对抗( rivalry的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new government was torn by rivalries. 新政府由于各派对立而四分五裂。 来自辞典例句
• Rivalries could bring about pain and hatred or give rise to fighting. 竞争会带来痛苦、仇恨，或者引起争斗。 来自互联网

5 disseminated   

散布，传播( disseminate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their findings have been widely disseminated . 他们的研究成果已经广为传播。
• Berkovitz had contracted polio after ingesting a vaccine disseminated under federal supervision. 伯考维茨在接种了在联邦监督下分发的牛痘疫苗后传染上脊髓灰质炎。

6 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

7 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

8 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

9 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

10 discredited   

不足信的，不名誉的

参考例句：

• The reactionary authorities are between two fires and have been discredited. 反动当局弄得进退维谷，不得人心。
• Her honour was discredited in the newspapers. 她的名声被报纸败坏了。

11 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

12 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

13 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

14 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。

15 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

16 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

17 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

18 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

19 concoction   

n.调配(物)；谎言

参考例句：

• She enjoyed the concoction of foreign dishes.她喜欢调制外国菜。
• His story was a sheer concoction.他的故事实在是一纯属捏造之事。

20 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

21 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

22 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

23 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

24 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。