The CIA, under fire over its intelligence about Iraq's arms programs, has posted a notice on its Web site offering rewards for information on the elusive weapons.
The "Iraqi Rewards Program" notice dated Tuesday seeks "specific and verifiable information" on the location of stocks of "recently made" chemical or biological weapons, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles or their components.
US intelligence agencies have been criticized for prewar estimates that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. None have been found since the US-led invasion last year.
David Kay, who led the US hunt for banned weapons in Iraq until stepping down last month, has said he did not believe that large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons existed when the US invaded.
The unspecified rewards were also offered for locating chemical or biological laboratories and factories, development, production and test sites and places where such materials were "secretly disposed."
The notice on www.cia.gov says: "The presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq puts at risk the health and safety of all Iraqis. The US Government offers rewards to Iraqis who give specific and verifiable information that helps Iraqis rid their country of these dangerous materials and devices."
People can respond on electronic forms in English or Arabic. The CIA said they were secure and would protect the information and identity of the sender.
A CIA spokesman said the notice was just one more avenue to get information out about existing US government rewards for information dealing with Iraq.
"Our Web site gets an enormous amount of hits from all over the world," the spokesman said. "It's just trying to get the word as broadly publicized as possible."
Rewards were also offered for former leaders of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, including US$10 million for information leading to the capture of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's former lieutenant who is the highest-ranking official on the Pentagon's top 55 most-wanted list still not found.
The CIA asked for information about imminent attacks by "insurgents or terrorists" and about individuals or groups obtaining explosives and other weapons to use against coalition and Iraqi security forces, schools, businesses and civilians.
Also see story:
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS