A reassessment by the CIA has cast doubt on a central piece of evidence used by the administration of George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq to draw links between former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government and al-Qaeda's terrorist network, government officials said Tuesday.
The CIA report, sent to policy-makers in August, says it is now not clear whether Saddam's government harbored members of a group led by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the officials said. The assertion that Iraq provided refuge to Zarqawi was the primary basis for the administration's prewar assertions connecting Iraq to al-Qaeda.
The new CIA assessment, based largely on information gathered after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, is the latest to revise a prewar intelligence report used by the administration as a central rationale for war.
In June of this year, Bush described Zarqawi as "the best evidence of connection to al-Qaeda affiliates and al-Qaeda." But while Zarqawi was once thought to be closely linked to al-Qaeda, his affiliations are now less certain.
Some US and European officials have said there is no clear coordination between Zarqawi and al-Qaeda, though their aims are similar. In the meantime, Zarqawi has emerged as an architect of repeated car bomb attacks and as the most active and deadly foreign terrorist operating in Iraq as part of the anti-US insurgency.
The CIA's new assessment states that it could not be conclusive even about his relationship with Saddam's government. The CIA review, first reported by Knight-Ridder newspapers, did not say on what basis the earlier assessment was being softened, and government officials declined to explain on Tuesday.
A CIA spokesman declined to comment about any new intelligence assessment. The government officials who outlined its findings represented several different agencies, but all were guarded in discussing it, saying they did not want to add to tensions between the CIA and the White House.
One official said the new report "doesn't make clear-cut assertions one way or another" about whether Iraq harbored Zarqawi. But officials said it had established beyond doubt that Zarqawi spent time in Baghdad in 2002, that from there he ordered the assassination of a US diplomat in Jordan and that he was in contact with members of the insurgent group Ansar al-Islam.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a