W House refuses to give intelligence report on Iraq Wednesday, July 14 2004 11:58 Hrs (IST)
New York:
The White House and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) have refused to give the Senate Intelligence Committee a one-page summary of intelligence report on Iraq prepared for US President George Bush that contains few of the qualifiers and none of the dissents spelled out in longer reviews.
Senate Democrats claim the document could help clear up exactly what intelligence agencies told Bush about Iraq's illicit weapons. The administration and CIA say the White House is protected by executive privilege and Republicans on the committee dismissed the Democrats' argument that the summary was significant, a media report said today (July 14, 2004) quoting Congressional officials.
The review, prepared for President Bush in October 2002, summarised the findings of a classified, 90-page National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq's illicit weapons.
Congressional officials were quoted by the 'New York Times' as saying that notes taken by Senate staffers who were permitted to review the document show that it eliminated
references to dissent within the Government about the National Intelligence Estimate's (NIE) conclusions.
"In determining what the President was told about the contents of the NIE dealing with Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, qualifiers and all, there is nothing clearer than this single page," Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat, said in a 10-page "additional view" that was published as an addendum to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on
Friday (July 9,2004), the paper said.