CIA Deliberately Misled UN Arms Inspectors, Says Senator

Independent (UK) ^ | 6-18-2003 | Rupert Cornwell

[blam]

CIA deliberately misled UN arms inspectors, says senator

By Rupert Cornwell, in Washington
18 June 2003

The row over Iraq's missing weapons intensified in Washington yesterday as a leading Senate Democrat accused the CIA of deliberately misleading United Nations inspectors to help clear the decks for an invasion of Iraq.

The charge by Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, comes as Congress gears up for its own hearings into whether the Bush administration misinterpreted or manipulated pre-war intelligence on the scale of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

Mr Levin is not the first Democrat to question the CIA's role. But his allegations are the most precise yet, and seem bound to increase pressure for a fuller, more public investigation than the Republican majority on Capitol Hill has been willing to concede thus far.

Mr Levin says that when the UN team under Hans Blix returned to Iraq last autumn, the CIA - contrary to what it claimed at the time - did not pass on its full list of 150 high or medium priority suspected weapons sites. This, in turn, enabled the US government to shut down the inspections quickly, opening the path for military action.

"Why did the CIA say that they had provided detailed information to the UN inspectors on all of the high and medium suspect sites, when they had not?" Mr Levin asked. "Did the CIA act in this way in order not to undermine administration policy?"

Had it been known that there were still outstanding sites, he suggested, there would have been "greater public demand that the inspection process continue".

President George Bush yesterday dismissed critics who doubt his pre-war claims about the Iraqi threat. He called them "revisionist historians". These days, however, he seems more careful to refer to the existence of Iraqi "weapons programmes," not the weapons themselves.

[blam]

This is about the 2004 election.

[dandelion]

The title has been mistyped. Let me correct it:

Senator Deliberately Lied to American People About UN Arms Inspectors

[mystery-ak]

Geez!....Im so tired of this issue.....Please, somebody/anybody find a barrel of something/anything so this will go away....

[Arpege92]

What an idiot....typical crap coming from the Rats. Eager to make accusations without any evidence.

[goodnesswins]

CORRECT TITLE: CIA deliberately tricked UN Arms Inspectors, so the Arms Inspectors would NOT trick the US

[tet68]

The reason they didn't tell them is they didn't want the Iraqis to know what they knew.

Leven TRUSTS the UN, that should tell you everything you need to know.

Aim for the blue helmet and you can't go wrong.

[CharacterCounts]

Levin knew what the CIA knew and he also knew the information was being kept from the inspectors because of the mumerous leaks within the UN inspection team. It is disingenuous for him to raise the issue now.

[Nick Danger]

The reason they didn't tell them is they didn't want the Iraqis to know what they knew.

That would be my guess as well.

[OREALLY]

The entire web page is an American hit list !!!!!!

[blam]

"The entire web page is an American hit list !!!!!!"

Yup. I did notice that.

[Parley Baer]

Levin is one of those responsible for cutting the funding and resources of the CIA. Now he complains. What a hippocritter. Parley

[TheDon]

Levin, in an October 1998 Senate letter to President Clinton: "[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."

Levin reiterated this on March 4, 1998. On December 17, 1998, he issued a statement supporting Clinton's strikes on Iraq: "Saddam Hussein has left the world no alternative." On September 19, 2002: "We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandates of the UN and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them."

[blam]

I think Rush covered this on his show today.

[Cvengr]

Thanks for the quotes.

Mr. Levine and many other Democrats don't seem to realize that the American people have been trained and become very saavy regarding Democratic SPIN and revisionistic history.

Politics is a living dynamic and those who have remained in the democratic socialist seats of power are too inept to realize they have been antiquidated by a younger generation that earlier scarred themselves by following democrats, but now see right through them.

It's actually rather embarassing to watch public democratic fiqures make such jackasses out of themselves. It's laughable o the arrogant and tragic to behold by the truthful.