Liberals claim CIA not doing enough to pursue Iraq

[prozak at anus.com]

CIA 'sabotaged inspections and hid weapons details'
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
14 February 2003


Senior democrats have accused the CIA of sabotaging weapons 
inspections in Iraq by refusing to co-operate fully with the UN and 
withholding crucial information about Saddam Hussein's arsenal.

Led by Senator Carl Levin, the Democrats accused the CIA of making an 
assessment that the inspections were unlikely to be a success and 
then ensuring they would not be. They have accused the CIA director 
of lying about what information on the suspected location of weapons 
of mass destruction had been passed on.

The row is of heightened significance given the Bush administration's 
preparations to argue later today before the UN Security Council that 
the inspections have run their course and it is now time to move to 
military action.

France, Russia, Germany and other members of the Security Council are 
likely to back a counter-proposal to increase the number of 
inspectors, providing them, if necessary, with the support of armed 
UN soldiers, as a means of avoiding a military strike.

The accusation of US sabotage emerged from a series of Senate 
hearings on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, George Tenet, the CIA director, 
told the armed services committee panel that the agency had provided 
the UN inspectors with all the information it had on "high" and 
"moderate" interest locations inside Iraq – those sites where there 
was a possibility of finding banned weapons. But Mr Tenet later told 
a different panel that he had been mistaken and that there were in 
fact "a handful" of locations the UN inspectors may not have known 
about.

Senator Levin, from Michigan, responded by saying the CIA director 
had not been telling the truth. Citing a number of classified letters 
he had obtained from the agency, he said it was clear the CIA had not 
shared information with the inspectors about a "large number of sites 
of significant value".

He said the CIA had told him additional information would be passed 
to the inspectors within the next few days.

Mr Levin pushed Mr Tenet on whether he thought the inspections had 
any value. The CIA director replied: "Unless [President Saddam] 
provides the data to build on, provides the access, provides the 
unfettered access that he's supposed to, provides us with 
surveillance capability, there is little chance you're going to find 
weapons of mass destruction under the rubric he's created inside the 
country ... The inspectors have been put in a very difficult position 
by his behaviour.

Mr Levin said later he believed the CIA had, in effect, taken the 
decision to undermine the inspections. "When they've taken the 
position that inspections are useless, they are bound to fail," he 
told The Washington Post. "We have undermined the inspectors."

Mr Levin has raised his concerns with the White House. In a letter to 
President Bush, the senator asked that America provide the inspectors 
with as much information as available.

He wrote: "The American people want the inspections to proceed, want 
the United States to 
share the information we have with the UN inspectors and want us to 
obtain United Nations support before military action is used against 
Iraq." 
13 February 2003 23:27


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=378163
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