Unable to produce evidence of Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" the Bush administration is scrambling to cover up its tracks, reports Anayat Durrani from Washington Two months after the major fighting in Iraq ended, the White House faced accusations that it lied about American intelligence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to make its case for war. The United States' failure to find solid proof to support pre-war claims that Iraq possessed biological, chemical or nuclear weapons has caused a firestorm of criticism at home and abroad. US justification for war with Iraq centred on the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat to Americans and the world. In February, Secretary of State Colin Powell gave testimony before the United Nations Security Council, saying, "There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more, and he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction." "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tonnes of chemical-weapons agents. We have no indication that Saddam Hussein has ever abandoned his nuclear weapons programme." But since the war ended with Iraq, no such weapons have been found. A widely publicised report by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) concluded in September 2002 there was "no reliable evidence" to prove Saddam Hussein had produced and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction, but concluded that Iraq probably had chemical agents. The leaked report was disclosed last week and has since spawned a barrage of worldwide criticism against the US and Britain. The US failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction, coupled with the report, has raised questions about whether the Washington had deliberately exaggerated the alleged threat posed by Iraq and its weapons programme and misled the American people and Congress. US lawmakers have been among the most outspoken critics, demanding that Bush explain whether intelligence was manipulated to support his agenda for war with Iraq. "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction remain a mystery and a conundrum," said Senator Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat. "What are they, where are they, how dangerous are they? Or were they a manufactured excuse by an administration eager to seize a country?" US Senators from both parties have called for an investigation. The leak has placed senior Bush administration officials on the defensive, with Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice making their rounds in the media for damage control. On CNN's Late Edition, Powell sharply responded to critics denying accusations in the media that the Bush administration exaggerated information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to justify war with Iraq. Powell maintained that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons before the US-led invasion in March. He said Iraq acknowledged it had biological weapons but never accounted for them. "We have no doubt whatsoever that over the last few years, they have retained such weapons or retained the capability to start up production of such weapons." "We also know they are masters of deceit and masters of hiding these things, and so a little patience is required," he said. Powell described it as "really somewhat outrageous on the part of some critics to say that this was all bogus". On Fox News on Sunday Powell addressed what he called a "firestorm" in the media surrounding intelligence reports about weapons of mass destruction being doctored to justify war with Iraq. He said the quote from the DIA was taken out of context, and that a line within the report "talked about not having the evidence of current facilities and current stockpiling. The very next sentence says that it had information that [chemical] weapons had been dispersed to units," Powell said. "So there is a question about whether you are talking about chemical weapons or a production facility." Powell backed his 5 February presentation to the UN Security Council which included intelligence that Iraq had developed and was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. He added that the allegations were supported by the Central Intelligence Agency. "That statement was vetted thoroughly by all of the analysts who were responsible for this account," he said. Rice on Sunday described recent criticism as "revisionist history". On NBC's Meet the Press, she said, "The truth of the matter is that repeated directors of central intelligence, repeated reports by intelligence agencies around the world, repeated reports by United Nations inspectors asking hard questions of Saddam Hussein, and tremendous efforts by this regime to conceal and hide what it was doing, clearly give a picture of a regime that had weapons of mass destruction and was determined to conceal them." Rice said that intelligence from the CIA and material from UN weapons inspectors offered solid justification for the US-led attack on Iraq. Both Rice and Powell said that Director of Central Intelligence George J Tenet believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and as Powell explained, it is "the official judgment of the director of central intelligence who is the one responsible for gathering all this information". Congress is examining the pre- war intelligence and the CIA has called for its own internal review. Meanwhile, the search for weapons of mass destruction continues in Iraq. Senior officials in the Bush administration say they are certain that in time more evidence will come forth.
