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CIA Reverses Assessment of Iraq’s Chemical Weapons
The CIA has issued a classified report reputing its previous assessments of prewar Iraq’s alleged chemical weapons program, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Dec. 8, 2004). “Iraq probably did not pursue chemical warfare efforts after 1991,” says the Jan. 18 report. The new conclusions “vary significantly” from past assessments “largely because of subsequent events and direct access to Iraqi officials, scientists, facilities and documents,” the report states. “It's basically updating the books, so the information on the shelf is the most current,” an intelligence official said, describing the report. Current and former intelligence officials said, however, that it was surprising to see the CIA issue a report reversing past views. “The situation is rather unique,” said former senior agency official Richard Kerr. “Ordinarily, you’re never proven wrong in a clean, neat way” (Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 1). Meanwhile, retiring U.S. Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith yesterday defended the decision to invade Iraq, saying it had been “clear” that prewar Iraq had WMD programs. “The principal error in the intelligence was whether the Iraqis had stockpiles as opposed to programs. What we found is they had the programs, they didn’t have the stockpiles,” he said yesterday (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 31).
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