|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Declassified Description of Iraq’s WMD Capability Lacked Reservations Appearing in Original Assessment
The Bush administration removed cautionary caveats from a secret intelligence report on Iraq’s WMD capabilities before it released the parts of the report to the public, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported today (see GSN, Feb. 9). To support its claims against Iraq before the war, the administration declassified a version of its October 2002 national intelligence estimate, a document that contained many caveats that were removed from the public version. For example, the public version says that “most analysts assess Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program” and that “if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon within this decade.” The classified report, however, contained a dissenting view from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research that was not included in the public version: “The activities we have detected do not, however, add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing what INR would consider to be an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons. Iraq may be doing so, but INR considers the available evidence inadequate to support such a judgment.” As to when Iraq might acquire a nuclear weapon, the caveat says, “INR is unwilling to … project a timeline for the completion of activities it does not now see happening.” Another major difference between the secret and public assessments dealt with Iraq’s effort to develop unmanned aerial vehicles. The declassified report says that Iraq’s UAVs “especially if used for delivery of chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents, could threaten Iraq’s neighbors, U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf and the United States if brought close to, or into, the U.S. homeland.” In addition, the public report warns that Iraq was able to quickly develop biological weapons for delivery by “bombs, missiles, aerial sprayers and covert operatives, including potentially against the U.S. homeland.” The classified intelligence assessment indicates significant disagreement among intelligence services on this issue. The Air Force “does not agree that Iraq is developing UAVs primarily intended to be delivery platforms for chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents,” it says, and there is no mention of Iraq’s ability to conduct a biological attack in the United States. Regarding chemical weapons, the public assessment says that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein “probably has stocked a few hundred metric tons of CW agents.” The classified report, however, says that Iraq “probably has stocked at least 100 metric tons (MT) and probably as much as 500 MT of CW agents,” but includes the caution that the intelligence community had “little specific information on Iraq’s CW stockpile.” That caveat was deleted from the publicly released intelligence assessment (Jonathan Landay, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 10).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
