Agencies had lack of intel on WMD, US report claims

US agencies had "significant deficiencies" in collecting information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and alleged ties to al-Qaeda prior to the war against Baghdad, top lawmakers on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee told the CIA in a letter obtained on Saturday.

Intelligence that Iraq continued to pursue chemical and biological wea-pons and had ties to terror groups were long-standing judgments that were not routinely challenged within the intelligence agencies, according to the letter dated on Thursday to CIA Director George Tenet and obtained by reporters.

"The assessment that Iraq continued to pursue chemical and biological weapons remained constant and static over the past 10 years," said the letter from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, a Republican, and Representative Jane Harman, a Democrat.

But there was "insufficient specific information" about former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's plans and intentions, the status of Iraq's WMD programs and capabilities, and Iraq's links to al-Qaeda, the letter said.

The lawmakers cited weakness in intelligence from spies on the ground and said the government needed to develop better sources.

US was "fragmentary and sporadic" after UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998, the letter said.

"These assessments and long-standing judgments were not challenged as a routine matter within the IC [intelligence community]," the lawmakers wrote in the letter that reflected their own views and not the full committee's opinion.

"The notion that our Community does not challenge standing judgments is absurd," CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said in a statement. "Iraq was an intractable and difficult subject. The tradecraft of intelligence rarely has the luxury of having black and white facts."

The US justified going to war largely because of a threat from Iraq's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs, but no such weapons have been found.

CIA David Kay, who has been coordinating the hunt for Iraq's banned weapons, is scheduled to present lawmakers with an interim progress report in the coming week, but was not expected to reveal that any weapons had been found, sources have said.

"We believe there were significant deficiencies with respect to the IC's [intelligence community's] intelligence collection activities concerning Iraq's WMD programs and ties to al-Qa'ida [al-Qaeda] prior to the commencement of hostilities there," the letter said.

The October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate report on Iraq said it had continued its WMD programs, had chemical and biological weapons and was reconstituting its nuclear weapons programs.

"Thus far, it appears that these judgments were based on too many uncertainties," the letter said.

"The absence of proof that chemical and biological wea-pons and their related development programs had been destroyed was considered as proof that they continued to exist," it said.