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US misread Iraqi orders
US intelligence analysts misunderstood intercepted Iraqi communications, believing the orders were meant to deceive UN weapons inspectors searching for chemical or biological agents, a new report says.Instead, the conversation between two Iraqi Republican Guard Corps commanders that included the order to remove reference to "nerve agents" from "wireless" communications was intended to ensure the regime was in compliance with international demands to disarm, the Foreign Affairs magazine reported in its online edition this week. That conversation was intercepted by the United States in 2002. The article was based on a recently declassified US Joint Forces Command report assessing Iraqi internal developments prior to the war. The report said that US analysts had no way of knowing Saddam Hussein was trying to comply, since Iraq had spent a decade trying to hide evidence of weapons of mass destruction. According to this report, Saddam was insisting that full access be given to weapons inspectors "in order not to give President Bush any excuses to start a war". Allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was Mr Bush's chief reason for launching the March 2003 invasion. In the months leading up to the war, Iraq did give access to UN weapons inspectors. The comments about "nerve agents" featured prominently in then US secretary of state Colin Powell's February 5 presentation at the UN security council that aimed to win support for a military conflict with Iraq. After the invasion, the US military searched for unconventional weapons but were unable to find any, adding fuel for war critics who insisted the Bush administration purposely deceived the US public about the reasons for going to war. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-15 |
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