The CIA responded angrily on Friday to new congressional criticism of its handling of prewar intelligence about Iraq's suspected illicit weapons program. At a briefing at CIA headquarters, four senior intelligence officials said that a top-secret internal review now under way had found no evidence of faulty work.
"What it has shown us is that the judgments were not only sound, they were very sound, and backed up by more than one source," a senior intelligence official said of the review, which is being conducted under orders from George Tenet, the director of central intelligence.
The briefing was organized in response to a report in The Washington Post that said the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was preparing to issue a report saying that intelligence agencies made serious errors of judgment in reaching their prewar conclusion that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons and was reconstituting its nuclear program.
In an angry public statement, the CIA spokesman, Bill Harlow, said that any such finding would be premature. Harlow said that top intelligence officials had not yet been given an opportunity to share their own findings with members of the intelligence committee.
Congressional officials said that the detailed review by the Senate committee had indeed turned up indications of serious errors.
But Senator Pat Roberts, the panel chairman, issued a statement saying that the committee was nowhere near completing its review and that it would hear from Tenet and others before reaching any findings.
The senior intelligence officials who outlined findings from a 405-page review being conducted by the National Intelligence Council said that it would be David Kay, the American heading the search for illicit weapons in Iraq, who would ultimately determine if the CIA had been right.
"We don't think what we did was deficient, we don't think it was sloppy, and we're waiting to see what David finds to see whether we got it right," a senior official said.
The reference was to Kay, who said in an interim report this month that his team had not yet found any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq.
But, it added, his search would not be completed until sometime next year.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2