- Senior democrats have accused the CIA of sabotaging weapons
inspections in Iraq by refusing to co-operate fully with the UN and withholding
crucial information about Saddam Hussein's arsenal.
-
- Led by Senator Carl Levin, the Democrats accused the
CIA of making an assessment that the inspections were unlikely to be a
success and then ensuring they would not be. They have accused the CIA
director of lying about what information on the suspected location of weapons
of mass destruction had been passed on.
-
- The row is of heightened significance given the Bush
administration's preparations to argue later today before the UN Security
Council that the inspections have run their course and it is now time to
move to military action.
-
- France, Russia, Germany and other members of the Security
Council are likely to back a counter-proposal to increase the number of
inspectors, providing them, if necessary, with the support of armed UN
soldiers, as a means of avoiding a military strike.
-
- The accusation of US sabotage emerged from a series of
Senate hearings on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, George Tenet, the CIA director,
told the armed services committee panel that the agency had provided the
UN inspectors with all the information it had on "high" and "moderate"
interest locations inside Iraq - those sites where there was a possibility
of finding banned weapons. But Mr Tenet later told a different panel that
he had been mistaken and that there were in fact "a handful"
of locations the UN inspectors may not have known about.
-
- Senator Levin, from Michigan, responded by saying the
CIA director had not been telling the truth. Citing a number of classified
letters he had obtained from the agency, he said it was clear the CIA had
not shared information with the inspectors about a "large number of
sites of significant value".
-
- He said the CIA had told him additional information would
be passed to the inspectors within the next few days.
-
- Mr Levin pushed Mr Tenet on whether he thought the inspections
had any value. The CIA director replied: "Unless [President Saddam]
provides the data to build on, provides the access, provides the unfettered
access that he's supposed to, provides us with surveillance capability,
there is little chance you're going to find weapons of mass destruction
under the rubric he's created inside the country ... The inspectors have
been put in a very difficult position by his behaviour.
-
- Mr Levin said later he believed the CIA had, in effect,
taken the decision to undermine the inspections. "When they've taken
the position that inspections are useless, they are bound to fail,"
he told The Washington Post. "We have undermined the inspectors."
-
- Mr Levin has raised his concerns with the White House.
In a letter to President Bush, the senator asked that America provide the
inspectors with as much information as available.
-
- He wrote: "The American people want the inspections
to proceed, want the United States to share the information we have with
the UN inspectors and want us to obtain United Nations support before military
action is used against Iraq."
-
-
- © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=378163
|