In assessing a recent ad calling President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other administration figures liars, FactCheck.org excuses the lies, claiming the statements reflected intelligence community reports. To do so, however, excuses the intelligence manipulation that has also been well-documented.
It is well understood at this point that the Bush administration got the intelligence assessments it wanted. Such assessments are not to be confused with accurate assessments which would have been in the best interest of the nation.
“This is not just about the behavior of a few individuals but about a culture that permitted them to continue trying to skew the intelligence to suit their policy agenda – even after it became clear that we as a government had so badly missed the call on Iraqi WMD,” [Robert Hutchings, the former chairman of the National Intelligence Council] said, referring to weapons of mass destruction.
So for FactCheck.org to excuse administration claims on grounds that they were based on intelligence assessments is disingenuous.