A New C.I.A. Report Casts Doubt on a Key Terrorist's Tie to Iraq

A New C.I.A. Report Casts Doubt on a Key Terrorist's Tie to Iraq

"The C.I.A. report, sent to policy makers in August, says it is now not clear whether Mr. Hussein's government harbored members of a group led by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the officials said. The assertion that Iraq provided refuge to Mr. Zarqawi was the primary basis for the administration's prewar assertions connecting Iraq to Al Qaeda.

"The new C.I.A. assessment, based largely on information gathered after the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, is the latest to revise a prewar intelligence report used by the administration as a central rationale for war.

Other reports have cast doubt on the idea that Iraq provided chemical and biological weapons training to Al Qaeda, and the report of the Sept. 11 commission found no "collaborative relationship" between the former Iraqi government and Al Qaeda.

"In the months before the war, George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell were among administration officials who asserted without qualification that Iraq had harbored Mr. Zarqawi and members of his terror group.

"In June of this year, President Bush described Mr. Zarqawi as "the best evidence of connection to Al Qaeda affiliates and Al Qaeda." But while Mr. Zarqawi was once thought to be closely linked to Al Qaeda, his affiliations are now less certain.

Some American and European officials have said there is no clear coordination between Mr. Zarqawi and Al Qaeda, though their aims are similar."

Maybe there is someone in this Country who will be surprised about this report. But they shouldn't be. Members of the administration including Cheney, Rumsfield and Wolfowitz are on record before Bush was elected advocating for an invasion of Iraq in the so called Neo-conservative theory of remaking the political atmosphere in the Middle East by fostering an Arab democracy. We seem far from a realistic democracy in Iraq. Perhaps they'll pull off an election, but will it be seen as representative of the Iraqi people? Will the Sunni's see their disenfranchisement and join the insurgency in large numbers? Will there be a civil war?

All of this was forseeable before the war, even by the casual observer. The neo-conservatives had a morbid facination in our military prowess and grossly over-estimated our credibility in Iraq. And now we have a quagmire.


A New C.I.A. Report Casts Doubt on a Key Terrorist's Tie to Iraq

October 6, 2004

By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - A reassessment by the Central

Intelligence Agency has cast doubt on a central piece of

evidence used by the Bush administration before the

invasion of Iraq to draw links between Saddam Hussein's

government and Al Qaeda's terrorist network, government

officials said Tuesday.

The C.I.A. report, sent to policy makers in August, says it

is now not clear whether Mr. Hussein's government harbored

members of a group led by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab

al-Zarqawi, the officials said. The assertion that Iraq

provided refuge to Mr. Zarqawi was the primary basis for

the administration's prewar assertions connecting Iraq to

Al Qaeda.

The new C.I.A. assessment, based largely on information

gathered after the American-led invasion of Iraq in March

2003, is the latest to revise a prewar intelligence report

used by the administration as a central rationale for war.

Other reports have cast doubt on the idea that Iraq

provided chemical and biological weapons training to Al

Qaeda, and the report of the Sept. 11 commission found no

"collaborative relationship" between the former Iraqi

government and Al Qaeda.

In the months before the war, George J. Tenet, then the

director of central intelligence, and Secretary of State

Colin L. Powell were among administration officials who

asserted without qualification that Iraq had harbored Mr.

Zarqawi and members of his terror group.

In June of this year, President Bush described Mr. Zarqawi

as "the best evidence of connection to Al Qaeda affiliates

and Al Qaeda." But while Mr. Zarqawi was once thought to be

closely linked to Al Qaeda, his affiliations are now less

certain.

Some American and European officials have said there is no

clear coordination between Mr. Zarqawi and Al Qaeda, though

their aims are similar. In the meantime, Mr. Zarqawi has

emerged as an architect of repeated car bomb attacks and as

the most active and deadly foreign terrorist operating in

Iraq as part of the anti-American insurgency.

The C.I.A.'s new assessment states that it could not be

conclusive even about his relationship with Mr. Hussein's

government. The C.I.A. review, first reported by Knight

Ridder newspapers, did not say on what basis the earlier

assessment was being softened, and government officials

declined to explain on Tuesday.

On Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld appeared to

back away from earlier claims about the close relationship

between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

"I just read an intelligence report recently about one

person who's connected to Al Qaeda who was in and out of

Iraq, and there's the most tortured description of why he

might have had a relationship and why he might not have had

a relationship," Mr. Rumsfeld told the Council on Foreign

Relations in New York.

Mr. Rumsfeld later issued a statement saying that he

continued to believe that there had been "solid evidence of

the presence in Iraq of Al Qaeda members" before the 2003

war and that "we have what we believe to be credible

information that Iraq and Al Qaeda have discussed safe

haven opportunities in Iraq."

A C.I.A. spokesman declined to comment about any new

intelligence assessment. The government officials who

outlined its findings represented several different

agencies, but all were guarded in discussing it, saying

they did not want to add to tensions between the C.I.A. and

the White House.

One government official said the new report "doesn't make

clear-cut assertions one way or another" about whether Iraq

harbored Mr. Zarqawi. But officials said that it had

established beyond doubt that Mr. Zarqawi spent time in

Baghdad in 2002, that from there he ordered the

assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan and that he

was in contact with members of the insurgent group Ansar

al-Islam in northern Iraq, the government officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/politics/06intel.html?ex=1098104543&ei=1&en=2a2cc427eafe91e7



-------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\

I HEART HUCKABEES - OPENING IN SELECT CITIES OCTOBER 1

From David O. Russell, writer and director of THREE KINGS

and FLIRTING WITH DISASTER comes an existential comedy

starring Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Hupert, Jude Law, Jason

Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts.

Watch the trailer now at:

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/huckabees/index_nyt.html

\----------------------------------------------------------/

Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine

reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!

Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy

now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:

http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF



HOW TO ADVERTISE

---------------------------------

For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters

or other creative advertising opportunities with The

New York Times on the Web, please contact

<a href="mailto:onlinesales@nytimes.com">onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media

kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to

<a href="mailto:help@nytimes.com">help@nytimes.com.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company