The director of the CIA denied Democratic allegations on Tuesday that US President George W. Bush's administration misrepresented facts about Iraq's weapons programs in order to make a case for war.
Pressed by Senate Democrats, George Tenet said he has told policy-makers when they were mischaracterizing intelligence, and that he planned to call Vice President Dick Cheney to tell him he had referred in a newspaper interview to a discredited document.
Tenet also made clear that he believes policy-makers should be allowed to be flexible in how they interpret intelligence.
"At the end of the day, they make policy judgments and they talk about things differently," Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Tenet appeared before the panel to present his annual worldwide threat assessment. He repeated themes he had discussed before the Senate Intelligence Committee: Although al-Qaeda is damaged, the terror network's anti-American agenda has spread to other groups that threaten the US.
Tenet also warned that violence in Iraq probably will continue as the July 1 transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis approaches.
Much of the hearing focused on whether Tenet is responsible for publicly correcting officials who make false or misleading statements on intelligence.
Prewar claims about Iraq have become a politically charged issue. It especially heated up after the former chief US arms inspector, David Kay, said in January that Saddam Hussein was unlikely to have had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons or an advanced nuclear program.
Bush's main argument for war was an immediate threat posed by illegal Iraqi weapons.
Administration officials say their claims reflected the intelligence available. Democrats insist the administration misrepresented intelligence and disregarded caveats and dissenting opinions to bolster its case for war.
In particular, they fault the Defense Department's Office of Special Plans with presenting a distorted picture of Saddam's weapons and ties to al-Qaeda.
In a speech at Georgetown University last month, Tenet said that intelligence analysts had not claimed before the war that Iraq was an imminent threat, although they had described how Saddam was continuing programs that could have threatened US interests.
Some of Tuesday's toughest questioning came from Senator Edward Kennedy, who last week criticized Tenet for not coming forward earlier to "set the record straight."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese