![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksCIA: Assessment of Syria's WMD exaggerated
By WARREN P. STROBEL and JONATHAN S. LANDAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON -In a new dispute over interpreting intelligence data, the CIA and other agencies objected vigorously to a Bush administration assessment of the threat of Syria's weapons of mass destruction that was to be presented Tuesday on Capitol Hill.And the CIA-White House war heats up. Now that the White House is basically pointing fingers at the analysts and claiming that it's their fault for feeding them wrong intel, of course the spooks are going to be up in arms. What else did the White House expect? Remember what the CIA allegedly told Jimmy Carter after they refused him data on UFOs? "Presidents come and go every four years, but the CIA is forever." And it's not as if they're going to fall on their swords following Tenet's lead - the DCI is usually a political appointee anyway and most spooks are career men, some with literally generations tied into the Company. Don't fuck with the Firm, dudes.
After the objections, the planned testimony by Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, a leading administration hawk, was delayed until September.
U.S. officials told Knight Ridder that Bolton was prepared to tell members of a House of Representatives International Relations subcommittee that Syria's development of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons had progressed to such a point that they posed a threat to stability in the region.
The CIA and other intelligence agencies said that assessment was exaggerated.
Syria has come under increasing U.S. pressure during and after the Iraq war for allegedly giving refuge to members of Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq to attack U.S. troops and for backing Palestinian militant groups that were conducting terrorist strikes on Israel. After Saddam's government fell, some Bush aides hinted that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus might be the next U.S. target.
The objections by the intelligence community come as the Bush administration is defending itself over complaints that it embellished intelligence secrets to justify the war against Iraq.
Bolton's planned remarks caused a "revolt" among intelligence experts who thought they inflated the progress Syria has made in its weapons programs, said a U.S. official who isn't from the CIA, but was involved in the dispute.
He and other officials who provided similar accounts spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity and because they aren't authorized government spokesmen.
The CIA's objections and comments alone ran to 35 to 40 pages, the official said.
Officials declined to provide more details of the disputes over the testimony, some of which was secret and scheduled to be delivered in closed session. The House panel is considering a bill that would toughen trade and diplomatic sanctions against Syria, which is on the U.S. list of terrorist-sponsoring nations.
Officials provided conflicting explanations of why the hearing was canceled.
A Bolton aide said it was because of a scheduling conflict - Bolton was called to a White House meeting Tuesday afternoon - and that the hearing had been reset for September. Others said it was because the bitter dispute couldn't be immediately resolved.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment on the issue.
As for John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, he's another scary behind-the-scenes-pulling-strings kind of guy. A recent Salon article does a profile on him, so you can go read it at your leisure. In short, though, this is a man of whom Jesse Helms said, "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, or what the Bible describes as the final battle between good and evil."
And if that doesn't make you want to reach for your brown pants, nothing will.
