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Intelligence Report Shows Ambiguity on Iraq WMD Before War
Aired June 06, 2003 - 13:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Months before the war the Pentagon intelligence service said it had no reliable information that Iraq was producing or stockpiling chemical weapons.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre has details for us now, joining us from the Pentagon.
Hello, Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, there's no doubt that some critics of the administration may seize on the language in this report to suggest that perhaps U.S. intelligence before the war wasn't as definitive as the Bush administration made it out to be.
But a careful reading of the report doesn't necessarily support that.
Let's take a look at the most interesting statement. Right at the beginning, it said that, "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities."
The emphasis there is that the assessment at the time -- and again, this is just before the United States was going to war -- was that Iraq wasn't producing any new weapons of mass destruction.
But the report does go on to detail what it believes Iraq has at the time. And it says, for instance, that "unusual munitions transfer activity in mid-2002 suggests that Iraq is distributing CW munitions in preparation for an anticipated U.S. attack."
Another reference says, "Iraq probably possesses CW agent in chemical munitions, possibly including artillery rockets, artillery shells, aerial bombs, and ballistic missile warheads."
And the assessment further says that "Iraq is assessed to possess biological agent stockpiles that may be weaponized and ready for use."
So the report clearly says, the assessment from the DIA in September of 2002 clearly believes that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. It just questions whether Iraq has been able to restart and produce any new weapons at the time period just before the U.S. went to war -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Jamie, the point's well taken here. Very easy to take these sorts of things out of context. One source, one report. There are so many reports, so many sources out there. How do you try to weigh that against all that's out there?
MCINTYRE: Well, there's a saying in the intelligence community which is, "Tell me what you know, tell me what you think, tell me what you think you know and make sure you make clear which is which."
This report is full of caveats. It says, for instance, at one point that they lack any direct information. Of course, that was the case since the end of 1988 when U.N. inspectors left. The U.S. didn't have a clear window on what was going on in Iraq.
But the big question they had was, "What happened to the weapons of mass destruction the U.S. believed Iraq had all along? And did Saddam Hussein come clean and show -- account for those?" That was really the main justification for the U.S. going to war. The contention by the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had never accounted for the weapons that the U.S. believed he had all along.
O'BRIEN: All right. CNN's Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.
We should tell you that we are expecting to hear from Senator John Warner of Virginia of the House -- excuse me -- Senate Armed Services Committee. They're in the midst of a closed door session. There you see the microphones there -- with representatives of various intelligence agency, defense Intelligence Agency, CIA, to discuss some of these issues as to whether the intelligence in any way was spun or hyped or whatever you want to say in advance of Iraq war. As soon as Senator Warner walks up to those microphones, we'll bring it to you live, of course.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
War>
Aired June 6, 2003 - 13:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Months before the war the Pentagon intelligence service said it had no reliable information that Iraq was producing or stockpiling chemical weapons.
CNN's Jamie McIntyre has details for us now, joining us from the Pentagon.
Hello, Jamie.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, there's no doubt that some critics of the administration may seize on the language in this report to suggest that perhaps U.S. intelligence before the war wasn't as definitive as the Bush administration made it out to be.
But a careful reading of the report doesn't necessarily support that.
Let's take a look at the most interesting statement. Right at the beginning, it said that, "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities."
The emphasis there is that the assessment at the time -- and again, this is just before the United States was going to war -- was that Iraq wasn't producing any new weapons of mass destruction.
But the report does go on to detail what it believes Iraq has at the time. And it says, for instance, that "unusual munitions transfer activity in mid-2002 suggests that Iraq is distributing CW munitions in preparation for an anticipated U.S. attack."
Another reference says, "Iraq probably possesses CW agent in chemical munitions, possibly including artillery rockets, artillery shells, aerial bombs, and ballistic missile warheads."
And the assessment further says that "Iraq is assessed to possess biological agent stockpiles that may be weaponized and ready for use."
So the report clearly says, the assessment from the DIA in September of 2002 clearly believes that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. It just questions whether Iraq has been able to restart and produce any new weapons at the time period just before the U.S. went to war -- Miles. O'BRIEN: Jamie, the point's well taken here. Very easy to take these sorts of things out of context. One source, one report. There are so many reports, so many sources out there. How do you try to weigh that against all that's out there?
MCINTYRE: Well, there's a saying in the intelligence community which is, "Tell me what you know, tell me what you think, tell me what you think you know and make sure you make clear which is which."
This report is full of caveats. It says, for instance, at one point that they lack any direct information. Of course, that was the case since the end of 1988 when U.N. inspectors left. The U.S. didn't have a clear window on what was going on in Iraq.
But the big question they had was, "What happened to the weapons of mass destruction the U.S. believed Iraq had all along? And did Saddam Hussein come clean and show -- account for those?" That was really the main justification for the U.S. going to war. The contention by the Bush administration that Saddam Hussein had never accounted for the weapons that the U.S. believed he had all along.
O'BRIEN: All right. CNN's Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.
We should tell you that we are expecting to hear from Senator John Warner of Virginia of the House -- excuse me -- Senate Armed Services Committee. They're in the midst of a closed door session. There you see the microphones there -- with representatives of various intelligence agency, defense Intelligence Agency, CIA, to discuss some of these issues as to whether the intelligence in any way was spun or hyped or whatever you want to say in advance of Iraq war. As soon as Senator Warner walks up to those microphones, we'll bring it to you live, of course.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
War>
