WMDs in Iraq

[Damato, Anthony A]

I've been intending for some weeks to write to this Forum to ask a question
which I now will ask: if the US intelligence community had had any good
evidence that Iraq was hiding WMD weapons, wouldn't the UN inspectors have
been tipped off by now as to the location of at least one of these hiding
places?  The more days that go by, the more the feeling will grow among
independent observers that the entire premise of the Bush Administration's
mobilization against Iraq may have been the result of faulty or even
fictitious intelligence.  Today's New York Times (Jan. 24) carries the
report that "In his appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations
yesterday, Mr. Wolfowitz said that it was possible the administration was
'misinformed on some things'."  Though this is a limited and grudging
admission, it nevertheless represents quite a retreat from the "absolute
certainty" of a few weeks ago that there were hidden WMDs in Iraq.  The
Iraqi crisis is probably one of the all-time most critical tests of our
intelligence apparatus.  I'd like to hear what our intelligence
professionals think.

Tony D'Amato
http://anthonydamato.law.northwestern.edu/

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