CIA Wrong on Iraq 'Mobile Labs,' Powell Says

Sunday, May 16, 2004

(4:31 PM ET)

Reuters

"It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that, I am disappointed, and I regret it."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking from a resort in Jordan, is interviewed on NBC's Meet the Press by moderator Tim Russert, left, Sunday, May 16, 2004 in Washington. Powell chastised a press aide for trying to cut short the taping of a television interview Sunday as he was listening to a final question from moderator Tim Russert.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Meet the Press

WASHINGTON -- Reuters
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was wrong about Iraq's purported pre-war mobile biological weapons laboratories, a key part of the case about suspected weapons of mass destruction, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday.

"I'm very concerned," he said in reply to a question on the NBC program "Meet the Press" about having used claims in a U.N. Security Council speech now known to have been "inaccurate and discredited."

"When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me," he said.

Last month, Powell described the assertions he made about the purported labs as "the most dramatic" element of his Feb. 5, 2003, speech. He acknowledged on April 2 the information was suspect but stopped short of drawing any public conclusions.

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Dan