U.S. less sure about illicit weapons-(Worldwide, China, and Iraq)

[better2know]

http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=118129

-apparently from the NYT-

-snip-

A broad U.S. government reappraisal of intelligence about illicit weapons programs around the world is prompting a softening of some earlier judgments about foreign arsenals, according to several U.S. officials.

The reassessment - in two parallel, highly classified reviews by the National Intelligence Council - is based on a review of judgments made on the basis of old intelligence and on new information, when that is available. The reviews, which are still in draft form, are the first since the late 1990's by the council, which reports to George Tenet, the director of central intelligence.

Other than the reappraisal on China, the officials declined to specify which judgments were being revised. But they said that in the cases of a number of countries, the judgments being reached would reflect less certainty than in the previous review. "The analysts are insisting that the judgments be backed up by hard evidence, not supposition," an official familiar with the process said.

As an example of the danger of supposition, a second official cited Iraq, saying that the absence of evidence that Iraq had destroyed its chemical and biological weapons appeared to have been interpreted by intelligence agencies as evidence that it still possessed them.

-end snip-

Okay-
I would have liked to hear this trumpted from every street corner before we invaded Iraq.
But let's get the facts out in the open.

[Mal]

1. Entire new concept in Intelligence Gathering!!!!

"...judgments be backed up by hard evidence, not supposition..."

[July]

2. Wow, quoting Rumsfeld!

Didn't he say that the absence of evidence {of WMDs in Iraq) was not the evidence of absence? And that concept is now being used as an example of supposition! I love it!