Bush ignored Iraq arms doubts

2008-06-05 20:20

Washington - US President George W Bush and top administration policy makers ignored doubts among intelligence agencies over Saddam Hussein's arms programmes as they made their case for war with Iraq, a Senate committee reported on Thursday.

The Senate Intelligence committee said in a study that major administration statements on Iraq before the March 2003 US-led invasion in most cases were substantiated by available US intelligence, but that they failed to reflect internal debate over those findings.

It also said that Bush administration statements that Iraq had a partnership with al-Qaeda and provided it with weapons training were unsupported by intelligence.

The Senate study supported previous reports and findings that the administration's main case for war - that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - was inaccurate and deeply flawed.

Many intelligence conclusions that Iraq had or was developing weapons of mass destruction turned out to be inaccurate.

The report also said cited at least one statement - by then-Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that the Iraqi government operated underground weapons of mass destruction facilities - was not backed up by intelligence information.

- Reuters