Testing Washington's intelligence

[kskiska]

If true to history, the Bush administration may scupper the inquiry it has just announced into the quality of information it received on Saddam's WMDs, writes Mark Tran


For the second time in his presidency, George Bush will set up a panel to look at US intelligence gathering, this time after what US weapons expert David Kay described as "a broad intelligence failure on Iraq".

The first commission was set up after the September 11 2001 attacks to investigate the most colossal US intelligence debacle since Pearl Harbour, but it has not been plain sailing, not least because its work has been hamstrung by the White House's reluctance to provide documents and the refusal of major figures to testify.

One big intelligence blunder under a presidency is bad enough, but two mistakes on this scale smacks of carelessness to high degree. Of course, the oversight on Iraq may prove to be not quite the "mistake" the administration is portraying it to be. Possibly, the administration influenced the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defence Intelligence Agency and others - subconsciously, Lord Hutton might say - to tailor their information to suit their political masters.

(snip)

Fast forward to the Bush presidency and September 11. There is no question that it was an intelligence failure in the classic sense in that the authorities failed to avert the blow. The commission is still sitting, but enough has emerged to call into question the basis of US counter-terrorist efforts.

Samuel Berger, Bill Clinton's national security adviser, stressed the threat from al-Qaida during the handover to the Bush administration, but Condoleezza Rice, his successor, later told Time magazine she did not remember the briefing.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/analysis/story/0,3604,1140194,00.html