J-10
06-14-2004, 11:04 PM
Mon Jun 14, 7:12 PM
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (*******) - The CIA (news - web sites) has nearly finished declassifying a highly critical report about prewar intelligence on Iraq (news - web sites)'s weapons of mass destruction and returned most of it to Congress on Monday with parts it believes should be kept secret marked in brackets, government sources said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report examines one of the main reasons used by the United States for going to war against Iraq -- intelligence that said Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction. No large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons have been found.
The committee will meet on Tuesday behind closed doors to discuss the report including its conclusions and the CIA's redactions. The panel was expected to vote on whether to approve the roughly 400-page report.
Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), the Kansas Republican chairman of the committee, has been adamant about making public as much of the report as possible.
The panel's options include negotiating with the CIA over passages that the intelligence agency determines would be harmful to national security if they were publicly released.
The committee could rewrite those portions or it could override the CIA and issue the report in its full original form -- but that option was considered unlikely.
The CIA was still working to declassify two remaining sections of the report and was expected to complete that in the next day or two, an intelligence official said.
It was unknown whether the committee would ask CIA Director George Tenet, who earlier this month said he would leave his position for personal reasons in July, to respond to the report before it is released.
Speculation circulated at the time of Tenet's resignation that it might have been due to the Senate Intelligence Committee report and the 9/11 Commission report that is due at the end of July. Both are expected to criticize the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report will detail problems in prewar U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but be less critical of the intelligence on terrorism, government sources said. It was expected to specifically criticize Tenet in some instances.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold hearings which will be followed by recommendations for changes to the U.S. intelligence community.
From (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=4&u=/nm/20040614/ts_nm/security_intelligence_dc)
By Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON (*******) - The CIA (news - web sites) has nearly finished declassifying a highly critical report about prewar intelligence on Iraq (news - web sites)'s weapons of mass destruction and returned most of it to Congress on Monday with parts it believes should be kept secret marked in brackets, government sources said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report examines one of the main reasons used by the United States for going to war against Iraq -- intelligence that said Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction. No large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons have been found.
The committee will meet on Tuesday behind closed doors to discuss the report including its conclusions and the CIA's redactions. The panel was expected to vote on whether to approve the roughly 400-page report.
Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), the Kansas Republican chairman of the committee, has been adamant about making public as much of the report as possible.
The panel's options include negotiating with the CIA over passages that the intelligence agency determines would be harmful to national security if they were publicly released.
The committee could rewrite those portions or it could override the CIA and issue the report in its full original form -- but that option was considered unlikely.
The CIA was still working to declassify two remaining sections of the report and was expected to complete that in the next day or two, an intelligence official said.
It was unknown whether the committee would ask CIA Director George Tenet, who earlier this month said he would leave his position for personal reasons in July, to respond to the report before it is released.
Speculation circulated at the time of Tenet's resignation that it might have been due to the Senate Intelligence Committee report and the 9/11 Commission report that is due at the end of July. Both are expected to criticize the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report will detail problems in prewar U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but be less critical of the intelligence on terrorism, government sources said. It was expected to specifically criticize Tenet in some instances.
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to hold hearings which will be followed by recommendations for changes to the U.S. intelligence community.
From (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=4&u=/nm/20040614/ts_nm/security_intelligence_dc)