Skepticism About Defector's Weapons Allegations Ignored
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 13, 2004; Page A12
A Defense Intelligence Agency official warned the CIA about the questionable reliability of an Iraqi defector who was the chief source of allegations that Saddam Hussein had mobile facilities for making biological weapons, but his information was included in the official prewar intelligence estimate anyway, according to the report released last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence....
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The Iraqi defector was listed as a "credible source" for the information on Iraq's bioweapons fleet in the CIA's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, even though only one U.S. intelligence analyst had ever interviewed him....
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The DIA employee, who was assigned to CIA headquarters, told his CIA superior that he questioned the "validity of the information" and that it warranted "further inquiry before we use the information as the backbone of one of our major findings for the existence of a continuing Iraqi BW
program!"
He also e-mailed the deputy chief of the CIA's Iraq task force. Both officials said they were already aware of his concerns, the Senate report said.
The deputy chief e-mailed him back: "LET'S KEEP IN MIND THE FACT THAT THE WAR'S GOING TO HAPPEN REGARDLESS OF WHAT CURVE BALL SAID OR DIDN'T SAY, AND THAT THE POWERS THAT BE PROBABLY AREN'T TERRIBLY INTERESTED IN WHETHER CURVE BALL KNOWS WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT. However, in the interest of Truth, we owe somebody a sentence or two of warning, if you honestly have reservations."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45200-2004Jul12.html