Intelligence

White House Says It Had Iraq WMD Intelligence

Yahoo! News - White House Says It Had Iraq WMD Intelligence: "Sun Sep 28,12:56 PM

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) insisted on Sunday there was new U.S. intelligence obtained before the Iraq (news - web sites) war about Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction programs, despite an assertion by key congressional leaders that the information was dated or fragmentary.

Rice, a top aide to President Bush (news - web sites), dismissed the finding by leaders of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee that much of the information relied upon long-standing judgments dating back to before U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 that were not routinely challenged by intelligence agencies.

"There was enrichment of the intelligence from 1998 over the period leading up to the war," Rice said on the "Fox News Sunday" program. "And nothing pointed to a reversal of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s very active efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction."

"... It was very clear that this continued and it was a gathering danger," she said. "Yes, I think I would call it new information and it was certainly enriching the case in the same direction."

She was responding to concerns of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, and Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat, in a letter to CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet dated on Thursday and obtained by Reuters this weekend.

'CONSTANT AND STATIC'

"The assessment that Iraq continued to pursue chemical and biological weapons remained constant and static over the past 10 years," the letter said.

There was "insufficient specific information" about the former Iraqi president's plans and intentions, the status of Iraq's WMD programs and capabilities, and Iraq's links to al Qaeda, the lawmakers said.

The letter, which did not reflect the full committee's opinion, cited weakness in intelligence from spies on the ground and said the government needed to develop better sources.

The lawmakers concluded: "There were significant deficiencies with respect to the IC's (intelligence community's) intelligence collection activities concerning Iraq's WMD programs and ties to al-Qa'ida (al Qaeda) prior to the commencement of hostilities there."

The United States justified going to war largely because of a threat from Iraq's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs, but no such weapons have been found.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said he had "no second thoughts" about the decision to go to war.

"There was every reason to believe -- and I still believe -- that there were weapons of mass destruction and weapons programs to develop weapons of mass destruction," Powell said on ABC's "This Week."

"I don't think we have anything to be regretful about," he added.

CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said, "The notion that our community does not challenge standing judgments is absurd."

"Iraq was an intractable and difficult subject. The tradecraft of intelligence rarely has the luxury of having black and white facts," he added.

CIA adviser David Kay, who has been coordinating the hunt for Iraq's banned weapons, is scheduled to present lawmakers with an interim report in the coming week, but was not expected to reveal that any weapons had been found.

Kay's report was "only going to be a progress report and is likely not going to draw any major conclusions," Rice said. "He's got a very long way still to go," she told Fox.

An October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate report on Iraq said it had continued its WMD programs, had chemical and biological weapons and was reconstituting its nuclear weapons programs.

September 28, 2003 at 07:48 PM in Iraq | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home