[Peace-discuss] the missing WMDs

[patton paul]

US should be "embarrassed" over failure to find WMDs: ex-spies
34 minutes ago
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government should be "embarrassed" over the
apparent failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (news -
web sites), the main justification for going to war, retired intelligence
officials said Thursday.

"It's going to be very embarrassing when it turns out they have nothing to
declare," said former defense intelligence analyst Eugene Betit.

Another, former CIA (news - web sites) 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 had any foundation.

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 (news - web sites) staff Thursday.

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 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 was discovered by and by, they'll say,
'ok, the weapons were planted -- fine.'"

McGovern said he was alluding to a remark by Secretary of State Colin
Powell (news - web sites) 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 (news - web
sites)'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."

McGovern and 24 other former intelligence officials in the CIA, State and
Defense Departments, Army Intelligence and FBI (news - web sites) formed a
group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

They made their first public statement on February 5, critiquing Powell's
presentation before the UN Security Council.

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