Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Gibbons says evidence supported going to war

Nevada lawmaker admits there were gaps in intelligence gathered by spies

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim Gibbons said Monday that President Bush had enough evidence to justify going to war against Iraq despite a recent assessment there were "substantial gaps" in U.S. intelligence about the Mideast nation.

Gibbons, R-Nev., said the CIA and other intelligence-gathering agencies compiled documentation to support a judgment that Saddam Hussein maintained deadly weapons caches and had links with al-Qaida terrorists.

But, Gibbons said, the U.S. lacked "human intelligence," information developed by spies and Iraqi contacts, that could build confidence in the judgment, or shoot it down.

"We lacked the people in the intelligence agencies to do the necessary human intelligence work to give us everything we needed to know," said Gibbons, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Gibbons said that was the thrust of a letter that came to light over the weekend, authored by Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., and top Democratic member Jane Harman of California.

The CIA was spotty in its efforts to develop fresh information on Iraq since U.N. weapons inspectors were kicked out of the country in 1998, Goss and Harman wrote to agency Director George Tenet in a letter that has sparked the latest controversy over the president's decision to wage war.

The assessment that Saddam Hussein posed a threat was given to Bush in a classified October 2002 National Intelligence Assessment. But a review of 19 volumes of documentation behind the report showed weaknesses in U.S. intelligence gathering, Goss and Harman said.

Gibbons, a House committee member, said the committee leaders' views were being mischaracterized by war critics and the "news media" as a broad indictment against the president's decision making.

Rather, Gibbons said the intent of the letter was to draw attention to shortcomings in human intelligence gathering, a theme that has run through several congressional reports on the CIA and U.S. information gathering.

Gibbons blamed the Clinton administration for "downsizing" U.S. intelligence.

"I disagree with the way this is being analyzed," Gibbons said. "I believe there was sufficient intelligence to support the decision to go to war."

Gibbons said he still believes the U.S. military will turn up Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. "I remain confident that this will take place," he said.