Truths and Consequences

As the War on Iraq has come to an end and no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) have yet been found, many people are now questioning the accuracy of American intelligence. In the past several months, says this article in the U.S. News and World Report, there have been heated discussions on how credible intelligence information is even within the U.S. government. The Vice-President and the hawks in the administration have embraced intelligence supporting Iraq's developing WMD and Saddam Hussein's connection with terrorist groups, while the State Department, led by Secretary Colin Powell, has been cautious and critical in treating classified information. According to this article, the Defense Intelligence Agency issued a classified assessment last year on chemical weapons in Iraq, concluding that "there is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons…" Almost at the same time, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld testified in Congress that Saddam's regime "has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas," The authors of this article point out that "American intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs was sometimes sketchy, occasionally politicized, and frequently the subject of passionate disputes inside the government." The search for WMD in Iraq is still going on, but whether or not anything will be found is still a question. – YaleGlobal