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White House Shows Less Certainty Now on Iraq�s Arms January 27, 2004By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - The White House began to back away on Monday from its assertions that Iraq had illegal weapons, saying it now wanted to compare prewar intelligence assessments with what may be actually found there. The evolving position followed criticism of the intelligence reports about Iraq from the C.I.A.'s former chief weapons inspector, David A. Kay, comments that increased pressure on the C.I.A. and intensified the political debate in Washington over who was responsible for shaping the prewar intelligence that President Bush used tojustify toppling Saddam Hussein.
While Republican leaders have focused on the C.I.A. and how it gathered intelligence, Democrats have called for a close look at how the White House used that information. On Monday White House officials were no longer asserting that stockpiles of banned weapons would eventually be found.Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, told reporters en route to an appearance by President Bush in Little Rock, Ark., that the administration would wait for the weapons search team, the Iraq Survey Group, to complete its work
before drawing any conclusions about the quality of the intelligence available.
But he said that whatever the group's conclusions, Mr. Bush
had done the correct thing in deposing Mr. Hussein because Iraq was clearly working on chemical, biological andnuclear weapons.
"We know he had the intention, we know he had the capability," Mr. McClellan said. "And, given his history and given the events of Sept. 11, we could not afford to rely on the good intentions of Saddam Hussein." Dr. Kay, who resigned Friday, said that there was scant evidence that Mr. Hussein kept stockpiles of illicit weapons, and that the C.I.A., under its director, George J. Tenet, and other intelligence agencies were wrong in their assessments.
Dr. Kay has avoided placing any political spin on the flaws in the intelligence. But his comments, coming during a presidential campaign and as Congressional panels draw up reviews of prewar intelligence, had immediate political impact.
On Capitol Hill, Democratic leaders used Dr. Kay's statements to argue for a more aggressive investigation by the Republican-controlled Congress into the shaping of prewar intelligence. The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, complained that the Republican leader of the Senate intelligence committee, Pat Roberts of Kansas, was seeking to limit the scope of that panel's
inquiry, even as Dr. Kay was disclosing the extent of the problem.
"Unfortunately, it appears neither the administration nor
the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee shares this view" of the need for a vigorous investigation,Senator Daschle said.
Mr. McClellan, pressed on whether the White House still believed that stockpiles of illicit weapons would be found in Iraq - an assertion White House officials made as recently as Friday - replied, "I think it was the judgment of intelligence agencies around the world, as well as the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, that there were large, unaccounted-for stockpiles." The special commission
was the United Nations inspection team.
Caught in the middle is Mr. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, who is both a Bush confidant and a strong
defender of the agency.
The Senate intelligence panel has drafted a report strongly critical of the C.I.A.'s handling of prewar intelligence, and is waiting for Mr. Tenet's testimony, among other things, before completing its work. He is scheduled to appear on March 4, for the first time since the committee began its inquiry last spring, a Congressional official
said.
Administration officials said a draft of Mr. Tenet's written testimony was being circulated for review within the government, and is expected to be discussed later this
week by President Bush's advisers.
Congressional officials said the written testimony was not due until 72 hours before he appears before the panel, but they said they understood that the administration was seeking to deliver the document within the next 10 days in
order to influence the final report.
Dr. Kay said in an interview over the weekend that he did not believe that C.I.A. analysts were pressed by the Bush administration to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq's weapons programs. He also stressed that everyone in the intelligence community, as well as outside experts here and
abroad, all thought Iraq had illegal weapons.
He said American intelligence analysts had believed that Iraq had illegal weapons during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and said the fact the intelligence community as a whole was so wrong meant there should be a thorough reappraisal of how such intelligence work is done. On Monday, Dr. Kay's comments prompted members of both parties to argue that it is time for the Central Intelligence Agency to acknowledge it had made serious
mistakes in its prewar assessments.
Until now, both in public and in private discussions with the committee staff members, senior intelligence officials have refused to acknowledge that any mistakes were made, the Congressional officials said. But the officials, both Democrats and Republicans, said they believed that Dr. Kay's candid remarks should prompt Mr. Tenet to provide
Congress his best explanation.
"The conclusions reached by the intelligence community weren't substantiated by the intelligence," said one Congressional official, outlining a finding that is expected to be spelled out in a draft report being prepared for members of the committee. "The question is why these conclusions were allowed to permeate the analysis." Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the panel, said over the weekend that Dr. Kay's public statements raised "truly alarming questions about our intelligence, the reasons and justification for going to war and the president's doctrine of pre-emption." The House intelligence committee is preparing its own report on the administration's handling of prewar intelligence. That panel's top Democrat, Representative Jane Harman of California, said over the weekend that the administration had been "in deep denial" by failing to acknowledge what she called "serious deficiencies in prewar intelligence on Iraq" and by having "no apparent commitment
to addressing them."
"The potential threat posed by Iraq's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and Iraq's nuclear weapons program was central to the case for war," she said. "In light of Dr. Kay's statement, the president owes the American public and the world an explanation." Douglas Jehl contributed reporting from London for this
article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/27/politics/27WEAP.html?x=1076237269&ei=1&en=9cddcc21dfcbcc7b
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