US credibility takes a knock

2005-12-19 21:19

Washington - Faulty assessments on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction damaged United States credibility and forced a worldwide revaluation of intelligence-gathering practices, President George W Bush said on Monday.

At a news conference, Bush acknowledged that the false reports on Iraq's weapons capacity that justified the 2003 US-led invasion could hurt Washington's efforts to convince the world of Iran's nuclear arms ambitions.

"No question that the intelligence failure on weapons of mass destruction caused all intelligence services to have to step back and re-evaluate the process of gathering and analysing intelligence," Bush said.

"And so, there's been a lot of work done to work with other intelligence agencies, to share information about what went right and what went wrong as well as to build credibility among all services."

Bush said the bad intelligence on Iraq made it harder to convince the general public that the Americans were correct in their suspicions about Iran's nuclear programme which Tehran vehemently denies.

"People will say, you know, if we're trying to make the case on Iran, you know, well, the intelligence failed in Iraq, therefore, how can we trust the intelligence in Iran?"

Bush has admitted intelligence estimates that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were wrong. But he insists Saddam hoped to develop such arms and the move to topple him was justified.

- AFP