BRIAN MEEHAN has his team brimming with good health ahead of Royal Ascot and the Manton trainer had more to celebrate when Sans Reward landed the George Smith Horseboxes Maiden Auction Stakes at Salisbury yesterday.

The CIA’s independent watchdog has recommended disciplinary reviews for current and former officials who were involved in failed intelligence efforts before the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The CIA’s independent watchdog has recommended disciplinary reviews for current and former officials who were involved in failed intelligence efforts before the attacks of September 11, 2001.

FORMER CIA director George Tenet yesterday said he regretted assuring President George Bush in 2002 that he had “slam dunk” evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Former CIA Director George Tenet said he regretted assuring President George Bush in 2002 that he had “slam dunk” evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The CIA scrapped an audacious plan to kidnap al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden from an Afghan compound, according to a report into the September 11 terror attacks.

A Senate report detailing serious flaws in US intelligence-gathering highlights the urgent need for a permanent CIA director given the current terrorist threat, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said.

DEPARTING CIA director George Tenet was blasted in the Senate Intelligence report, which accused him of skewing advice to top policy-makers with the CIA’s view and elbowing out dissenting views from other intelligence agencies overseen by the State or Defence Departments.

US intelligence agencies fell victim to false “group think” when assessing Iraq’s weapons capabilities and ended up giving the Bush administration overstated or incorrect conclusions before the 2003 invasion, a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report says.

The CIA is today expected to face heavy criticism by the US Senate for its flawed analysis of the alleged threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Gulf War.

CIA director George Tenet has resigned for “personal reasons”, US President George Bush said today.

CIA director George Tenet predicted yesterday it will take “another five years of work to have the kind of clandestine service our country needs” to combat terrorist threats.

CIA director George Tenet predicted today it will take “another five years of work to have the kind of clandestine service our country needs” to combat al-Qaida and other terrorist threats.

THE Bush administration's former counter-intelligence chief yesterday told a national commission investigating the September 11 attacks that the president did not take the threat of terrorism seriously enough.

The hunt for middlemen who worked with the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme to supply rogue regimes with weapons technology has widened to Japan and Africa, diplomats said.

IN HIS first public defence of pre-war intelligence, CIA Director George Tenet yesterday said US analysts never claimed Iraq posed an imminent threat.

CIA director George Tenet said today Saddam Hussein’s Iraq posed “no imminent threat” in the months leading up the invasion.

The CIA named a new inspector to lead the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, choosing a veteran investigator who has expressed scepticism that Saddam Hussein possessed banned weapons that posed an immediate threat.

The top United States weapons inspector in Iraq is stepping down, it was announced the evening.

President George W Bush’s deputy national security adviser became the second US official to apologise for allowing a tainted intelligence report on Iraq’s nuclear ambitions to find its way into a major speech by Bush before Congress in January.

President George Bush has defended the quality of intelligence he receives as “darn good”, despite an uproar over disputed reports that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa for nuclear weapons.

Tony Blair is coming under mounting pressure to authorise an independent inquiry into the Iraqi dossiers affair after a trans-Atlantic split opened up over crucial intelligence.

President George W Bush said today he had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet despite his agency’s failure to warn Bush against making allegations about Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme which were later found to be false.

CIA Director George Tenet gave Congress and the White House the accountability they demanded, declaring that the blame for President George W Bush’s false allegation about an Iraqi nuclear deal rested squarely with him and his agency.

The CIA is reviewing a top secret intelligence report to decide whether Washington miscalculated the extent of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s weapons programmes, it emerged today.

JUST hours before the attack on Iraq began, the CIA reportedly told US President George Bush that the spy agency believed it had a fix on Saddam Hussein’s location.

Just hours before the attack on Iraq began, the CIA reportedly told US President George Bush that the spy agency believed it had a fix on Saddam Hussein’s location.

THE United States was bracing itself for the worst last night after Osama bin Laden issued a call to arms to defend Iraq amid warnings of a possible “dirty bomb” terror attack.

US SECRETARY of State Colin Powell told a Senate panel yesterday that what appears to be a new statement from Osama bin Laden shows why the world needs to be concerned about Iraqi ties to terrorism.

THE US remains "dangerously unprepared" to deal with another major terrorist attack, said a report by former top government officials, academics and business leaders.

TERRORISTS could try to strike again soon in the United States, according to FBI chief Robert Mueller.

CIA DIRECTOR George Tenet has told politicians Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, if provoked

PRESIDENT Bush stood beside a Pentagon rebuilt to mourn on this new September 11 the murder of so many innocents a year ago and, in their memory, he commanded the United States military to victory in the war the terrorists began.

The US Army recently doubled the size of its war stocks in Kuwait to accommodate a little-noticed expansion of armoured forces at a base near the Iraqi border, officials said.

Yasser Arafat today presented a plan for reforming his security services to visiting CIA chief George Tenet, with the Palestinian leader proposing to halve their number and tighten supervision.

Israeli troops entered another West Bank city early today as Washington announced that President George Bush would meet Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon next week in fresh efforts to bring calm to the Middle East and renew peace talks.

The Israeli army detained about 400 Palestinian suspects for questioning today, as CIA chief George Tenet was due to arrive for talks with leaders from both sides.

George Tenet, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, has claimed Iraq has had contacts with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida network. Addressing the US Senate, Mr Tenet said the two have been in contact, but their associations may be limited to tactical opposition to the United States and the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Palestinian security officials said the 250 Israeli tanks that moved into Ramallah on Tuesday, paralysing the West Bank commercial and administrative centre, began rolling out of the town and the adjacent Amari refugee camp after 2am.

The war on terror has resulted in the arrests of nearly 1,000 al-Qaida suspects in more than 60 countries.

Israel withdrew from two West bank towns and lifted some Palestinian travel restrictions today.

The US Government’s global manhunt has thwarted two terrorist attacks since September 11 and gathered evidence suggesting collaborators were working on several other plots to harm US interests at home and abroad, officials said.

America was today stepping up its Middle East peace efforts as the week-old ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians looked close to collapse amid continuing violence and killings.

Israel today accepted a US ceasefire proposal aimed at ending eight months of fighting with the Palestinians but appears to have little confidence in its success.