WP: Intelligence...agencies not equal to needs of preemptive attack policy

[Newsjock]

Edit to add link, change title to conform.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20004-2003Nov28.html

Intelligence Weaknesses Are Cited
Draft Says Agencies Not Equal to Needs of Preemptive Attack Policy
By Walter Pincus
(c) 2003, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — More than 10 years' work by U.S. and British intelligence agencies on Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or programs has ``major gaps and serious intelligence problems,'' according to a new study by Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East and intelligence expert who is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

``Even a cursory review'' of charges the U.S. and British administrations made in white papers released before the Iraq war ``shows that point after point that was made was not confirmed during the war or after the first (six) months of effort following the conflict,'' Cordesman found in his study, a draft of which he provided to The Washington Post.

Although the United States has the world's most sophisticated technical systems for collecting and analyzing intelligence, Cordesman found, the Iraq experience shows that U.S. intelligence is ``not yet adequate to support grand strategy and tactical operations against proliferating powers or to make accurate assessments of the need to pre-empt.'' Pre-emption, or waging war to prevent an enemy from attacking, is a key part of the Bush war on terrorism policy.

Another new non-governmental report, on the Bush administration's controversial claim that Iraq was seeking specialized aluminum tubes to use in a centrifuge to create nuclear weapons material, raises questions about whether senior policy-makers ignored technically qualified critics to promote the Iraqi threat.

more