http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=14&u=/nm/20030709/ts_nm/iraq_usa_weapons_dcWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration gave an inaccurate picture of Iraq's military threat before the war, a recently retired State Department intelligence official said on Wednesday, saying intelligence reports showed that Baghdad posed no imminent threat.
"I believe the Bush administration did not provide an accurate picture to the American people of the military threat posed by Iraq," said Greg Thielmann, who retired in September from his post of director of the strategic, proliferation and military affairs office in the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research.
"Some of the fault lies with the performance of the intelligence community, but most of it lies with the way senior officials misused the information they were provided," he said at a press conference held by the Arms Control Association.
President Bush justified going to war based on the threat from Iraq's alleged biological and chemical weapons and nuclear weapons program.
"As of March 2003, when we began military operations, Iraq posed no imminent threat to either its neighbors or to the United States," Thielmann said.
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