Intelligence Weaknesses Are Cited
Draft Says Agencies Not Equal to Needs of Preemptive Attack Policy

By Walter Pincus

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 29, 2003; Page A18

More than 10 years' work by U.S. and British intelligence agencies on Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or programs has "major gaps and serious intelligence problems," according to a new study by Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East and intelligence expert who is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Even a cursory review" of charges the U.S. and British administrations made in white papers released before the Iraq war "shows that point after point that was made was not confirmed during the war or after the first [six] months of effort following the conflict," Cordesman found in his study, a draft of which he provided to The Washington Post.

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