Washington, Sept 28: The CIA defended itself today against charges by two Congressional critics that there were "significant deficiencies" in the intelligence community's ability to gather information on Iraq before the US-led war.
"The intelligence community stands fully behind its
findings and judgments as stated in the national intelligence
estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs," CIA
spokesman Bill Harlow said.
In a letter first reported yesterday on the Washington
Post's web site, the Republican chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, Rep. Porter Goss, and its ranking
Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman, said the CIA relied on old
intelligence dating to 1998, along with "some new 'piecemeal'
intelligence" to develop its reports on Iraq's weapons
programmes.
Harlow said that was not the case.
"The notion that our community does not challenge
standing judgments is absurd," he said in a statement. "In
the post-1998 time period the intelligence community launched
an important and sustained effort to enhance our unilateral
understanding of Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction
programmes. From all of our disciplines, important gains were
made."
Bureau Report
