US accused of misrepresenting Iraq intelligence

The US government stood accused today of misrepresenting intelligence information to justify the war with Iraq.

A former senior State Department official said that when the war began in March, Iraq posed no threat to the United States or to its neighbours.

Its missiles could not reach Israel, Saudi Arabia or Iran, said Greg Thielmann, who held a high post in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Thielmann, one of four critics at a session held by the private Arms Control Association, said the White House had formed a “faith-based” policy on Iraq and took the approach that “we know the answers – give us the intelligence to support those answers.”

Meanwhile, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said claims by Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair that Iraq had been able to deliver weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes were “far off the mark”.

He said the comment “definitely was a mistake” and added that British officials had “over-interpreted the intelligence they had”.

“I think Mr Blair was sincerely convinced about the existence of weapons of mass destruction,” Blix said. “I was the one who was sceptical and critical. I did not think the evidence was so strong.”

President Bush, currently touring Africa, has said he was ”absolutely confident” in going to war against Iraq, despite the discovery that allegations Saddam Hussein had sought uranium in Africa for a nuclear weapons programme was based on forgeries.

“There is no doubt in my mind that when it is all said and done the facts will show the world the truth,” Bush said.

“There is going to be a lot of attempts to try to rewrite history, and I can understand that. But I am absolutely confident in the decision I made.”

In Washington, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee the administration decided to invade Iraq because the information about the threat from Saddam’s regime was seen in a different perspective after the September 11 terror attacks.

“The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq’s pursuit of weapons of mass murder,” he said. “We acted because we saw the existing evidence in a new light through the prism of our experience on September 11.”

Thielmann said the administration distorted intelligence to fit its policy. He said Iraq had no active nuclear weapons programme and that while CIA Director George Tenet told Congress Iraq had Scud missiles, the intelligence was actually that the missiles could not be accounted for.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said 1,044 American servicemen and women have been wounded in action or injured since the Iraq war began on March 20.

More than 380 have been wounded since Bush declared major combat over on May 1, officials said. Of the 212 US troops who have died in Iraq since the war started, 74 have died since May 1.