And he did have a program to build nuclear weapons. One resulted from the fact that Saddam in the 1980s, prior to the first Gulf War in the early 90s, did have chemical and biological weapons. The causes of those mistakes were numerous, and I want to touch on just some of them, the ones I see as most important. And the analysts made their own mistakes. Without good collection, however, the analysts were left on their own. The collection failure is significant because had collectors seen what Saddam had done, the analytic failure on WMD could not, and would not, have happened. There is, of course, reason to be skeptical of Saddam, but we believed him because his mindset at that point was that he was certain to be executed, and he wanted his life story told. We know this because Saddam told us this during his captivity. that once sanctions were lifted, Saddam would be free to re-arm. would lift the sanctions against Iraq that were strangling his economy and that he thought the CIA was so good that it would see through that secret and know that the weapons were gone ![]() In this NIE, which was titled "Iraq's Continuing Programs of Weapons of Mass Destruction,"ĬIA made four judgments about Iraq's WMD programs – (1) that Saddam had chemical weapons, (2) that he had biological weapons, (3) that he was pursuing a nuclear weapon, and (4) that he was expanding his missile force in order to be able to deliver these weapons. It is coordinated across the many agencies that make up the Intelligence Community, and it is approved by the head of each one. An NIE is the most authoritative product of the U.S. BUSH: Saddam Hussein must disarm himself or, for the sake of peace, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.ĬIA's views on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were outlined in an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate or NIE. BUSH: Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.įRANKEL: The president says these satellite photos show two operational nuclear installations inside Iraq and he argues the time to act is now. Bush gave his reasons for confronting Iraq in a speech last night in Cincinnati. "Intelligence Matters" transcript: Michael MorellįRANKEL: President Bush is calling Saddam Hussein a homicidal dictator who poses a clear threat to the United States. President, we think he has these weapons, but what you really need to know is that we only have low confidence in that.'"ĭownload, rate and subscribe here: iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher. ![]() President, we think he has these weapons, and we have high confidence in that view' and on the other hand, 'Mr.
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