WMD / Intelligence Failure : You Get What You Pay For

The Washington Post recently revealed that 2 analysts responsible for Iraqi pre-war WMD intelligence failures received good performance awards. The Army's National Ground Intelligence Center awarded lump-sum cash payments in fiscal 2002, 2003 and 2004 to George Norris and Robert Campos. These analysts made the case for the now infamous " aluminum tubes " that supposedly were part of an Iraqi nuclear centrifuge process. As it turns out the tubes were probably parts of the Nasser 81 rocket ( non-nuclear gear part ).

Former Under Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was the team leader of the Office of Special Plans that assembled information from various sources in the run-up to the invaision of Iraq . Most of that info has been found to have been cherry-picked to support an invaision. This was the " fixing information around policy " which was the message of the " Downing St Memo ". For his possible criminal/conspiratorial performance he was promoted to President of the World Bank.

Condoleeza Rice who was National Security Advisor to Bush was promoted to Secretary of State. This advance was in spite of her demonstrated lack of sophistication and competence in presenting these doctored intelligence reports to the unqualified Bush.

George Tenet, the CIA Director who resigned because of this breakdown on his watch, was awarded the Medal Of Freedom by Bush.

Was the rewarding of all those lapses of performance planned? If so they were bribes and a conspiracy of Homeric proportions. Or could they be further encouragement to " get along by going along "- an unspoken policy of following orders rather than following facts?

These are fine lines in criminal cases that are almost impossible to prove unless someone confesses.

In general, everything happens for a reason and you get what you pay for.