from usa today
report criticizes administration’s assessments of iraq dangers washington (ap) ã‘ secretary of state colin powell acknowledged thursday that he saw no “”smoking gun, concrete evidence”” of ties between saddam hussein and the al-qaeda terror network, but insisted that iraq had dangerous weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.
three experts at the carnegie endowment for international peace said in a report thursday that the bush administration systematically misrepresented a weapons threat from iraq, and u.s. strategy should be revised to eliminate the policy of unilateral preventive war.
“”it is unlikely that iraq could have destroyed, hidden or sent out of the country the hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons, dozens of scud missiles and facilities engaged in the ongoing production of chemical and biological weapons that officials claimed were present without the united states detecting some sign of this activity,”” said the report by jessica t. mathews, joseph cirincione and george perkovich.
iraq’s nuclear program had been dismantled and there was no convincing evidence it was being revived, the report said.
and the u.s.-led war on iraq in 1991 combined with u.n. sanctions and inspections effectively destroyed iraq’s ability to produce chemical weapons on a large scale, it said.
years of u.n. inspections to determine whether saddam was harboring weapons of mass destruction were working well, and the united states should set up jointly with the united nations a permanent system to guard against the spread of dangerous technology, the report said.
it recommended that consideration be given to making the job of cia director a career post instead of a political appointment.
citing the cia and other u.s. intelligence offices, the bush administration contended that iraq had caches of weapons of mass destruction and plans to produce more.
the carnegie report said the u.s. intelligence process failed on iraq and that bush administration officials dropped qualifications and expressions of uncertainty presented by u.s. intelligence analysts.
in the weeks before the war, the administration also intensified its false allegations of links between saddam and the al-qaeda terror network headed by osama bin laden.
since may, when bush declared an end to major combat, 357 u.s. service personnel have died in attacks on them and in accidents.