US should be "embarrassed" over failure to find WMDs: ex-spies

Agence France-Presse (AFP) ^ | 4-18-03 | Gina Doggett

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WASHINGTON, April 17 (AFP) - The US government should be "embarrassed" over the apparent failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, retired intelligence officials who opposed the war said Thursday.

"It's going to be very embarrassing when it turns out they have nothing to declare," said Eugene Betit, a former defense intelligence analyst who belongs to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), formed in January to speak out on the use of intelligence to justify the war.

Another, former CIA station chief Ray Close, said: "I'm hoping they will be embarrassed into acknowledging a role for some independent body. And who could it be but the UN?"

As the "smoking gun" continued to elude US sleuths in Iraq, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix called for experts to return to the country to determine whether the weapons allegations -- the main justification for going to war -- had any foundation.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday he was "reasonably sure" that proof will be found.

"We are quite confident of our intelligence," he told Jim Lehrer of PBS public television.

"There was a huge intelligence collection effort with all of our agencies working together to come up with the body of knowledge that we took to the UN, and that we had been presenting before the world for a long period of time," he said.

Adding to the pressure, Russia, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, said it would not support the lifting of UN sanctions against Iraq unless UN inspectors confirmed the absence of weapons of mass destruction.

But Washington has so far rejected such calls, and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday sought to deflect concerns that evidence could be planted.

"The (US search) teams have been trained in chain of control, really like a crime scene," Rumsfeld told Pentagon staff.

He said: "They will have people with them who will validate things, they will have the ability to take pictures, and to make sure that the control over any piece of evidence is as clear as it possibly can be."

Rumsfeld warned however: "That will not stop certain countries, and certain types of people from claiming, inaccurately, that it was planted."

Retired CIA intelligence analyst and VIPS member Ray McGovern told AFP: "Some of my colleagues are virtually certain that there will be some weapons of mass destruction found, even though they might have to be planted.

"I'm just as sure that some few will be found, but not in an amount that by any stretch would justify the charge of a threat against the US or anyone else. "

He added: "Even if the planting were discovered by and by, they'll say, 'ok, the weapons were planted -- fine.'"

McGovern said he was alluding to a remark by Powell after it emerged that a letter purporting to show that Iraq had sought to procure uranium from Niger -- a key argument in the case for war and cited in President George W. Bush's January 28 State of the Union address -- was a forgery.

Powell told NBC: "It was the information that we had. We provided it. If that information is inaccurate, fine."

VIPS, made up of 25 former intelligence officials in the CIA, State and Defense Departments, Army Intelligence and FBI, made their first public statement on February 5, critiquing Powell's presentation before the UN Security Council seeking an international mandate for the war.

"Never before has a group of veteran CIA graduates -- all cum laude -- gotten together to critique the government," McGovern said.

CIA spokesman Tom Crispell, asked for comment on the former officials' remarks Thursday, said: "They're criticizing policy, not intelligence."

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Ex-generals, ex-presidents, and now ex-spies.

Wankers all.

[HankReardon]

America should be proud to have held Iraq accountable to the cease fire agreement of '91 regardless. Saddam had many months to export his WMD's to his many allies. Hey, they are not done looking, American troops are amassing military assets in western Iraq near the Syrian border. Iraq's not the only place to look. Anything new on the 3 Iraqi flagged cargo ships doing circles in the Indian Ocean?

[MEG33]

Amen to that!

[Caipirabob]

Ahhh yes, a "French" new agency. Yep, they want us to buy their crap alright. Let the Boycott roll on, folks...

[Beck_isright]

LOL, they are falling into W's trap. President Bush is going to let all the pundits and "experts" and his political enemies just string out the rope and tie their own nooses. Then he's going to wait until one night, when we least expect it, to announce an address to Congress and the American people. He'll announce the death of Sadamn and the discovery of WMD's with pictures and documentation. Of course Ted Kennedy will call W a liar, so I think he should go into one of the testing facilities without MOP gear to prove that W is a liar. I think that's fair, don't you?

[Always Right]

Shouldn't the French be embarrassed that they supported a mad man like Saddam who is responsible for the torture, rape, and murder of millions of people. I guess not.

[Always Right]

The only thing America should be embarrassed about is not taking Saddam out sooner.

[mewzilla]

People should google VIPS if they get a chance. The crowd they hang out with says it all. Wankers is an apt description.

[trebb]

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Isn't that a spin-off from the Betty Ford Clinic?

[goldstategop]

We're only three and a half weeks in Iraq and another premature declaration. <Yawn

[Asclepius]

"It's going to be very embarrassing when it turns out they have nothing to declare," said Eugene Betit, a former defense intelligence analyst who belongs to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), formed in January to speak out on the use of intelligence to justify the war.

Man, will their faces be red or what?--for about ten minutes.

After watching children escape from Iraqi children's prisons, who bloody cares about WMDs?

[smith288]

I sure am glad they are ex-spies, ex-generals and ex-presidents.... when they were active, we got 9-11.

[JustPiper]

If either of these countries leaders ever have the gall to show up here in the USofA, we should massively Freep to kick em' out!

[OpusatFR]

Eventually the WMD will turn up. I'm happier that the Salman Pac terror camp and the terrorist group in Northern Iraq were taken out, not to mention capturing the Achille Lauro terrorist. How many more went to ground and will be captured? How many more were financed by Saddam?

Problem with the liberals is that they are so blinded by their quest for power they cannot see the full circle.

[LS]

I hope you are right. I do notice that a) we haven't had any follow up on the thousands of chemical-available warheads; b) we haven't had any followup on the mobile truck; c) we haen't heard anything about the 50 gal "pesticide" cannisters; and d) we haven't heard anything else about the many "buried" mobile labs that were reported.

It is POSSIBLE that we are accumulating all this stuff and will reveal it at the appropriate time.

I am getting concerned, though, that either Powell's tips were off, or mis-interpreted, and that we won't find any. (Again, that in itself should NOT have been the only reason to conduct this war, but I am concerned that it was made such a major rationale.)

[Beck_isright]

I'm not even concerned. W has his smirk going already as the DNC and world socialist community (or are they one and the same) start to panic and accuse him of going to war under false pretense. We are finding lots daily. It's just a matter of who do we want to embaress; the French, the Germans, the Russians or all of them.

[Sam Cree]

IMO, WMD's were not the main reason for toppling Saddam. It seems to me that the idea of disarming Saddam was more meant as a way to bring on board the UN and sway world opinion. Not successful in any case.

I believe the primary reason for the "regime change" was to fight terrorism. After all, groups such as Al Qaeda cannot exist in a vacuum, their existence requires friendly governments such as Saddam's. Therefore, regime change ended one state which harbored and aided terrorists and hopefully substituted it with one friendly to the U.S.

Very suddenly, the entire complexion of the Middle East may have changed. Only Syria and Iran remain as active enemies of the U.S., with the Iranians chomping at the bit for their own "regime change" and the Syrians are enjoying a healthy new respect for us. Those who would spread terror find their bases of operations and support rapidly shrinking and becoming very insecure.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has freed the Iraqis and the world from a monster who brutalised his own country and who has demonstrated that he is potentially dangerous on a global level.

And I do believe the threat of WMD's was real.

[mj1234]

I agree-- if anything was released, the world socialist
comunnity would (and by this article PLAN TO) say we
planted the evidence. We will need incontrovertible proof
that Saddam was not only making but EXPORTING WMD!! I
believe that is why Syria is so nervous.

By the way--I think Syria is a feint--Libya will be next.

[Sam Cree]

"Another, former CIA station chief Ray Close, said: "I'm hoping they will be embarrassed into acknowledging a role for some independent body. And who could it be but the UN?"

He's "hoping?!" A clear leftist agenda, IMO.

[Destructor]

"...I think he should go into one of the testing facilities without MOP gear to prove that W is a liar. I think that's fair, don't you?"

I don't know where the military would ever find MOPP gear big enough to fit Ted Kennedy anyway!