CIA revelation on US decision to make war on Iraq
Iraq-USA, Politics, 3/23/2006

The Iraqi former foreign minister Naji Sabri denied that he had several months before the war against Iraq given information to the CIA on any program of Iraqi mass destruction weapons.

Sabri told the press in a statement which was the first of his kind by him since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that the information stated by the American NBC TV are just lies and groundless.

On Tuesday, NBC said that Sabri was a rented secret source for the information for the CIA during the period preceded the war.

MSNBC quoted sources in the CIA that Sabri gave details about mass destruction weapons in Iraq, saying that "CIA officers met with an intermediary who represented Sabri. All discussions between Sabri and the CIA were conducted through a "cutout," or third party. Through the intermediary, intelligence sources say, the CIA paid Sabri more than $100,000 in what was, essentially, 'good-faith money.' And for his part, Sabri, again through the intermediary, relayed information about Saddam’s actual capabilities."

MSNBC said that the contact with Sabri was "for a short time" and indirectly thru a French mediator. It was not clear why the CIA had to go thru a mediator, and why the contact was for only "a short time." The report oddly seems to contradict its central message by saying "But, intelligence sources say, the CIA relationship with Sabri ended when the CIA, hoping for a public relations coup, pressured him to defect to the US. The US hoped Sabri would leave Iraq and publicly renounce Saddam. He repeatedly refused, sources say, and contact was broken off."

The report goes to say that Sabri, who lives in the "Middle East", an implication that he is outside Iraq, without shedding light if he lives in a country that supported or opposed the war, or a neutral country, or if he that was able to leave Iraq at war time with the help of the help of the US, but merely to imply that it is a possibility.

The NBC report said: "The CIA said if Saddam obtained enriched uranium, he could build a nuclear bomb in 'several months to a year.' Sabri said Saddam desperately wanted a bomb, but would need much more time than that. Sabri was more accurate."

The NBC report by this seems to shed light on the quality of the CIA intelligence skills in analysis, when it asks such unqualified questions as "if Saddam obtained enriched Uranium." It was not clear from the report if the CIA explored other questions as well such as "if Saddam owned the moon, how long it would have been before he would have been able to use this to harm US national security." It can be said that such intelligence and analysis skills of the CIA, if accurately depicted and not meant to shift blame to the CIA, are widespread among many politicians as well.

Previous Stories:
  The Iraq politics issue has two dimensions   (12/8/2005)

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