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A still-classified US intelligence report circulating within the Bush administration last October gave a far less clear picture of the link between Iraq and al Qaeda than the one presented by US President George W. Bush, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq, which represented the consensus of the US intelligence community, contained cautious language describing Iraq's connections with al Qaeda and warnings of the reliability of conflicting reports by Iraqi defectors and captured al Qaeda members about the ties, the report quoted US intelligence analysts and congressional sources as saying.
"There has always been an internal argument within the intelligence community about the connections between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda," said a senior intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The NIE had alternative views."
In a nationally televised address last October, Bush declared that the then government of Saddam Hussein posed an immediate threat to the United States by outlining what he said was evidence pointing to its ongoing ties with al Qaeda.
The address crystallized the assertion that had been made by senior administration officials for months that the combination of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and a terrorist organization, such as al Qaeda, committed to attacking the United States, posed a grave and imminent threat.
Within four days, US House and Senate overwhelmingly endorsed are solution granting the president authority to go to war.
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2003)
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