U.S. Mulls Shifting "Experts" from Iraq Arms Hunt [View All]

[villager]

U.S. Mulls Shifting Experts from Iraq Arms Hunt

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is considering shifting intelligence personnel in Iraq from the so-far fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction to strengthen efforts to combat the intensifying resistance, officials said on Wednesday.

"What's more important right now and what's more destabilizing: the insurgency or knowing about the WMD?" asked a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Officials said Pentagon leaders are considering reassigning a number of intelligence officers, interrogators, translators, linguists and others from the 1,400-member Iraq Survey Group, which is conducting the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.


President Bush cited what he said were Iraq's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons to help justify the war that toppled President Saddam Hussein, but such arms have not yet been uncovered.

<snip>

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=2&u=/nm/20031029/ts_nm/iraq_usa_intelligence_dc_2