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Iraq: U.S. Congress to Investigate Pre-War U.S. Intelligence The U.S. Congress is to begin investigating the claims made by the Bush administration prior to the war with Iraq that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction programs, the London Times reported today (see GSN, May 29). The House Intelligence Committee has sent a letter to CIA Director George Tenet with several questions related to the U.S. intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The letter asks for information on the quality and reliability of such intelligence and whether “any dissenting views were properly weighed,” the Times reported. “My concern is that we did not have enough good intelligence to draw the necessary conclusions that our policy-makers need to be completely confident,” Committee Chairman Porter Goss (R-Fla.) said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we gave them better information to base their judgments on?” he asked. The letter requests that Tenet respond by July 1, and the committee is expected to begin holding hearings on the matter that month, according to the Times. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also expected to hold similar hearings (Reid/Webster, London Times, May 30). U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday reiterated his belief that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to the war, citing the discovery of suspect mobile biological weapons plants. “We discovered weapons manufacturing facilities that were condemned by the United Nations,” Bush said. “Biological laboratories described by our secretary of state to the whole world that were not supposed to be there, that are a direct violation of the U.N. resolutions, have been discovered,” he said (Agence France-Presse, May 30). U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday denied that the war was launched under “false pretext.” “I can assure you that this war was not waged under any false pretext,” Rumsfeld said. “We believed then and we believe now that the Iraqis have, had chemical weapons, biological weapons and that they had a program to develop nuclear weapons but did not have nuclear weapons,” he said (Agence France-Presse II, May 30). Blair Faces Criticism Over Possibly Exaggerated Intelligence Meanwhile, British lawmakers have called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to make a statement on the justification for going to war with Iraq amid reports that the government might have exaggerated intelligence information on the threat posed by Iraqi biological and chemical weapons, the London Independent reported today. A case could be made for launching an investigation into the government’s claims that Iraqi forces could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes of receiving an order to do so, said former British Defense Secretary Lord King of Bridgwater. Such a claim was made in a British dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction released last year. “These are very serious allegations and if they are true then they would substantially undermine the government’s legal and political case for going to war,” said Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrat Party. The House of Commons Security and Intelligence Committee has refused to say whether it will conduct an investigation into the government’s claims of the Iraqi WMD threat, the Independent reported. Such an investigation, if it were to occur, would be conducted in secret and any report would be reviewed prior to release. Members of Parliament yesterday said only a statement by Blair would dispel doubts about the legality of the war. “The prime minister should make a statement to Parliament on Tuesday to tell MPs and the nation what were the reasons for going to war,” said Doug Henderson, a former armed forces minister. “If he doesn’t do that there will a feeling that there is a cover-up and ultimately he will be forced to make a statement,” Henderson said (Ben Russell, London Independent, May 30). Blair yesterday rebuffed criticism that there is no evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. “When you say there is no evidence that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq, there are 12 years of United Nations resolutions about the weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. There’s no doubt about the chemical program, the biological program, indeed the nuclear weapons program,” Blair said. “All that is well documented by the U.N.,” he said (Jon Smith, London Independent, May 30).
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