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Powell Calling on CIA to Explain Incorrect Prewar Iraq Intelligence, Officials Say
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is seeking an explanation from the CIA for the incorrect intelligence that he used as part of a presentation on Iraq’s alleged prewar WMD programs before the U.N. Security Council last year, senior Bush administration officials said yesterday (see GSN, May 24). Powell for several months has especially called on the CIA to explain its sources for the apparently false information that prewar Iraq possessed mobile biological weapons laboratories, according to the New York Times. All four of the sources used by the agency for the claim have fallen into disrepute, and at least two of the sources were defectors introduced to U.S. intelligence by the now-discredited Iraqi National Congress, according to intelligence and government officials. Intelligence officials said earlier this year that one of the four sources for the mobile biological weapons claim had been labeled as a fabricator by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2002, the Times reported. Information from that source still was incorporated into Powell’s presentation, officials said. During the preparation of his Security Council address, Powell was never informed about the agency’s concerns regarding the source, even though a DIA official was present during two meetings when the presentation was reviewed. “It’s an issue that Powell is intensely interested in,” an administration official said (Jehl/Sanger, New York Times, June 2).
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