WAR: CIA: No Chemical Weapons in Iraq, page 1

In a setback for the justification of the Iraq invasion and for the thus-far fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the CIA has issued a revisionist, classified report confirming that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons program in 1991, and that pre-war intelligence provided as grounds for the invasion was wrong. Official admittance of an intelligence blunder of such far-reaching ramifications has never before occured in the 63 year history of the agency.

www.smh.com .au
Washington: In a formal acknowledgment of the obvious, the CIA has issued a classified report revising its prewar assessments on Iraq and concluding that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991, intelligence officials say.

The report marks the first time the CIA has officially disavowed its prewar judgments, and is one in a "series" of updated assessments the agency is producing as part of a belated effort to correct its record on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, officials said.

But the CIA's decision to distribute the document in classified channels underscores the awkwardness the agency faces. Before the war, the CIA asserted that Iraq had stockpiled biological weapons and that it was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.

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In light of the lack of WMDs in Iraq, and the at best dubious reports of Baghdad connections to Al Qaeda, the question now is, where does the blame rest for an unjustified Iraq invasion; with the agency that produced bogus intelligence reports, or with the administration that grasped at any excuse to invade?

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[edit on 2-2-2005 by Banshee]