THE SHADOW KNOWS...NOTHING

Senator queries WMD claims (BBC, 6/17/03)

A senior US senator says he has evidence that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deliberately withheld crucial information from the UN arms inspectors deployed to Iraq. [...]

Senator Carl Levin is the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee which is reviewing the information provided by the CIA to the United Nations. [...]

He told reporters that if the public had known that information about alleged top weapons sites was not being shared, there would have been "greater
public demand that the inspection process continue".

"Why did the CIA say that they had provided detailed information to the UN inspectors on all of the high and medium suspect sites with the UN, when they had not? Did the CIA act in this way in order not to undermine administration policy? Was there another explanation for this?" he asked.

Broad purges wiped out most Iraqis helping CIA (John Diamond, 6/17/03, USA TODAY)

In the 12 years between the two wars the United States fought against Iraq, Saddam Hussein waged a bloody campaign to find and kill Iraqis spying for the CIA. With a combination of skill, luck and brutal efficiency, he largely succeeded, officials with knowledge of the CIA's struggles inside Iraq say.

From 1991 to 2003, Saddam's security forces killed hundreds of U.S.-linked Iraqi agents, intelligence sources say. Sometimes security
officials ferreted the spies out and executed them, and sometimes they made what amounted to lucky kills, executing spies along with non-spies during broader purges. [...]

The largest single loss of Iraqis helping U.S. intelligence occurred in August 1996. Saddam's security forces infiltrated a U.S.-backed coup
plot and rounded up 200 Iraqis on charges of participating in the plot and executed 80 of them immediately, according to reports published at the time. Iraqi forces then invaded sections of northern Iraq that were a base for the CIA-coordinated effort, rounding up still more suspects. After that, the CIA struggled painstakingly to rebuild its base of sources inside Iraq. [...]

Despite periodic efforts, U.S. intelligence had a hard time penetrating Saddam's inner circle. In the mid-1990s, according to former CIA
clandestine officer Robert Baer, in his book See No Evil, the agency "had no human sources inside or even near Saddam's circle -
none."

It's no surprise to find out just how useless was our intelligence on Iraq's WMD program. Our inability to trust the quality of such intelligence, even as concerns what was presumably our number one post-Cold War espionage target, is however an argument for pre-emptive strikes, not against. Since we can't know with any assurance what our enemies are up to, it is necessary to strike rather than wait for them to strike first.

Meanwhile, Mr. Levin's argument that we should have shared all of our intelligence with the notoriously compromised United Nations is not just laughable but dangerous. This kind of willingness to trust the UN is a prime example of why Democrats can't be trusted with our national security. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 18, 2003 7:41 AM