US ‘lacked weapons data before war’

AS the Bush administration was pushing last autumn for a war against Iraq because of alleged weapons of mass destruction, a defence department report said it did not have enough “reliable information” Iraq was amassing chemical weapons, a defence official said yesterday.

News of the classified September 2002 report by the Defence Intelligence Agency has added to claims the White House and Pentagon slanted US intelligence on Baghdad’s weapons programme to justify the war.

No such weapons have been found since Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was ousted in April but US President George W Bush has said repeatedly he believes US forces will find them.

Reacting to the report, National Security Council spokesman Mike Anton said any charges the US slanted intelligence were “nonsense”.

“The White House and the Pentagon did not slant intelligence ... This report is consistent with the judgment of the intelligence community, with what the president was saying, with what the UN was saying, with what foreign governments believed and assessed about Iraq,” said Mr Anton.

Around the time of the DIA report, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to Congress to press his case that Iraq was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons.

“What this report is saying is that there’s not enough reliable information to move things into the category of things we know,” said a defence official of the report, a summary of which was leaked to US media.

However, he said the 80-plus page report said intelligence indicated Iraq probably did have chemical and other weapons but that there was just not enough reliable intelligence to fully back up this claim.

“What’s been reported is accurate but you have to take it in context of the entire report, which is classified,” said the official.

“The way it’s briefed is in the category of ‘hey we think this is going on’ but we don’t have absolute proof.”

A small team of UN nuclear experts returned to Iraq yesterday. They said their role was to check on looting at a research facility that may have caused radioactive contamination, not to look for any weapons.

Yesterday, the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee held a closed-door hearing focusing on initial efforts by US forces to find weapons and the role of the new Iraq Survey Group in the so-far fruitless bid to find chemical and biological arms.

This group will be staffed by about 1,400 people from the United States, Britain and Australia.

Surprise at the lack of chemical weapons has been expressed by the US military, which launched its war expecting possible chemical or biological attacks.

Last week, US Marine Lieutenant General James Conway said US intelligence was “simply wrong” in leading the military to believe the invading troops were likely to be attacked with chemical weapons.

CIA director George Tenet has defended his agency’s intelligence on chemical and biological weapons, saying the “integrity of our process was maintained throughout.”