US/IRAQ: The White House has begun to admit that it is less certain about Iraq's alleged stocks of weapons of mass destruction, and now wants to compare pre-war intelligence assessments with what has been found.
The embarrassment for the Bush administration over the report of its arms inspector, Mr David Kay, that unconventional weapons most likely did not exist before the war, has been compounded by hearings of an independent commission investigating lapses in intelligence before the September 11th attacks. Major lapses in US intelligence and security allowed some of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks to enter the US even though they were suspected al-Qaeda operatives, had forged visas and lied on visa applications, the commission has been told. The charges contradict claims by senior administration officials that the hijackers entered the country legally. Faced with mounting criticism of its pre-war assertion that Saddam Hussein posed a danger to the US because he had weapons of mass destruction, the White House has now backed away from its claims.
Mr Kay's comments that questions should be asked of the intelligence community about the mis-information used to justify war has intensified the political debate in Washington over who was telling the truth. Republicans have stepped up criticism of CIA director George Tenet but Democrats have raised questions about how the information was used. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said during a presidential visit to Little Rock, Arkansas, that the administration would wait for the weapons search team to complete its work before reaching any conclusions about intelligence. He defended the decision to go to war, however, saying: "We know he had the intention, we know he had the capability, and, given his history and given the events of September 11th, we could not afford to rely on the good intentions of Saddam Hussein."
President Bush defended his actions yesterday. "I said in the run up [to war] that Saddam was a grave and gathering danger. I believed that then and I know it was true now," Mr Bush told reporters.
A number of senior US officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, are travelling abroad to press home the message that no matter what the findings, the war was justified in removing a repressive dictator who was a gathering threat.
The resignation of Dr Kay last week, when he said there was little evidence that Saddam Hussein had stored or manufactured banned weapons in recent years, has provoked a storm of critical comment on US talk radio, the source of news for many Americans. Many conservative commentators are pushing the theory that the CIA got it wrong because although it intercepted information that Iraqi scientists were given funds by Saddam Hussein to make weapons, the scientists were corrupt and used the money for other purposes.
The panel investigating pre-September 11th intelligence is also becoming an embarrassment for the Bush administration. It was due to report in May but may now delay its findings to mid-summer, just before the Republican Party convention. The commission's executive director Philip Zelikow said at the start of a two-day hearing in Washington, "Our government did not fully exploit al-Qaeda's travel vulnerabilities."
In a statement he listed the charges. At least two of the hijackers' passports were "clearly doctored" in a "manner ... associated with al-Qaeda." Two of the hijackers had passports with "suspicious indicators". Three hijackers submitted applications with false statements that could have been proved false when they applied. At least six hijackers violated immigration laws while in the US.