|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Iraqi Mobile Biological Facilities Claims May be Wrong, Powell Says
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that his claims to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003 of prewar Iraq’s alleged mobile biological weapons facilities might have been based on incorrect information, Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 2). Intelligence that two trailers were being used to develop biological weapons now appears not to have been “solid,” Powell said. “Now, if the sources fell apart we need to find out how we’ve gotten ourselves in that position,” Powell said. “I have discussions with the CIA about it,” he added (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 4). Iraq’s alleged mobile biological facilities most likely “did not exist,” Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said yesterday, adding that the Bush administration’s use of flawed intelligence on such facilities was “embarrassing for everybody.” The committee’s inquiry on U.S. prewar intelligence on Iraq examined the issue of the mobile biological facilities, Roberts said during an appearance on CNN’s Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer. While the committee’s report is not yet finished, “I think there is a preponderance of evidence that those mobile labs did not exist, in regards to any kind of biological weaponry,” he said. Roberts blamed the error on what he called an “assumption train” by U.S. and other intelligence agencies, in which all information was interpreted to indicate that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We have a real systemic problem on our hands,” he said. A CIA spokesman yesterday refused to comment on either Powell’s or Roberts’ remarks, the Times reported (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, April 5). Bush Urged Blair to Support Iraq War Soon After Sept. 11 AttacksMeanwhile, the London Observer reported yesterday that U.S. President George W. Bush asked British Prime Minister Tony Blair shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to support the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (see GSN, March 22). Bush and Blair discussed the issue during a private White House dinner held nine days after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the former British ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer. During that dinner, according to Meyer, Blair told Bush he should focus on combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. According to Meyer, Bush told Blair, however, “I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.” In a Vanity Fair article to be published this month, Meyer said that he took Bush’s comments to mean “that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn’t be to discuss smarter sanctions” (David Rose, London Observer, April 4). Kay Says He Knew Iraq Had No WMD Stockpiles Soon After ArrivingIn remarks also to be published in Vanity Fair, former U.S. chief weapons inspector in Iraq David Kay said that he knew shortly after arriving in Iraq last year that Hussein was no longer developing WMD stockpiles, according to the New York Daily News. Kay said that in early July 2003, he sent an e-mail to CIA Director George Tenet saying “that it looks like as though they did not produce weapons.” It was not until early this year, however, that Kay told Congress that U.S. intelligence had been wrong about Iraq’s WMD efforts. Kay also said that while he was ready to leave Iraq in mid-December, Tenet told him to remain. “If you resign now, it will appear that we don’t know what we’re doing and the wheels are coming off,” Kay quoted Tenet as saying. “So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll wait,’” Kay said (James Gordon Meek, New York Daily News, April 5).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
