The White House yesterday rebutted congressional accusations that it relied on weak intelligence to invade Iraq and unapologetically lauded the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
“Let me make very clear,” said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. “The world is safer because Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime have been removed from power.”
The spokesman was responding to a critical letter to CIA Director George J. Tenet from leaders of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Porter J. Goss of Florida and Democrat Jane Harman of California.
“The absence of proof that chemical and biological weapons and their related development programs had been destroyed was considered proof that they continued to exist,” the leaders wrote in the letter Thursday.
The lawmakers complained that the CIA relied too heavily on old intelligence and was unable to gather enough new intelligence before the war began. While Mr. Goss conceded that the CIA had admitted those shortcomings, Mrs. Harman suggested the problems led to faulty analysis of the Iraqi threat.
Although weapons of mass destruction were the administration’s argument for waging war, none have been found since the conflict ended five months ago. Yesterday, however, Mr. McClellan emphasized the broader benefits of the war.
“Saddam Hussein will no longer be able to oppress the people of Iraq,” the White House spokesman said. “He will no longer to be able to carry out the brutality that he did in the past.
“His regime is gone, it is removed from power and it is not coming back,” he added. “And it’s very clear that America is more secure because of the action that we took.”
It was the second day in a row the administration defended itself against accusations by Mr. Goss and Mrs. Harman about “significant deficiencies” in the CIA’s ability to gather fresh intelligence on Iraq. On Sunday, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the agency continued to gather incriminating intelligence even after Saddam evicted weapons inspectors in 1998.
“There was enrichment of the intelligence from 1998 over the period leading up to the war, and nothing pointed to a reversal of Saddam Hussein’s very active efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction,” she said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The administration continues to express faith in former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay, who was assigned by the White House to search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in post-war Iraq. Mr. Kay is expected to give a progress report on his search this week.
“David Kay has for only two and a half months been attempting to unravel Iraq’s WMD programs,” the CIA said in a statement. “His effort, which has only just begun, will be important in our process of continuing self-evaluation.”
The White House also sought to lower expectations for Mr. Kay’s report.
“There are miles of documents that Doctor Kay is still going through and his Iraq survey group,” Mr. McClellan said yesterday. “There are interviews that he is still conducting with Iraqis themselves who are providing more information.”
He added: “We’ll know the truth. He’ll pull together the full extent and the full picture of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass destruction program.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.