The information was so startling that CIA Director George Tenet, accompanied by Vice President Dick Cheney, trooped up to Capitol Hill to brief the four Senate and House leaders the day after Labor Day 2002. The administration was gearing up to present its case against Iraq at the UN, and lawmakers were eager for evidence that would prove Saddam Hussein was a threat.
In the briefing, Tenet and Cheney presented what one participant described as a “smoking gun.” New intelligence showed Iraq had developed unmanned airborne vehicles, called UAVs, that could deliver chemical or biological agents. In addition, Iraq had sought software that would allow it to produce sophisticated mapping of the eastern U.S. cities.
President Bush hinted at the evidence in a speech on Oct. 7, 2002.
One year ago, when Secretary of State Colin Powell made a presentation before the United Nations Security Council, he echoed the concern: “Iraq could use these small UAVs, which have a wingspan of only a few meters, to deliver biological agents to its neighbors or if transported, to other countries, including the United States.”
Since Powell’s speech, investigations by U.S. weapons inspectors have determined that the UAVs were not designed to spread deadly toxins but to fly reconnaissance missions.
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The story of the UAVs is an example of the errors of U.S. intelligence on Iraq.
In preparing for his UN speech, Powell had prided himself on spending long hours at the CIA, quizzing analysts who had developed the material and making certain the information had not just one source but was developed from a combination of human, signal and satellite intelligence.
Aides said Powell demanded information that was airtight, or I’m not going to use it.”
But in the end, much of that appeared to be for naught. David Kay, the chief weapons inspector who recently resigned, has told Congress there appear to be no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Only fragments of Powell’s presentation have been confirmed.
“It looks terrible,” said Joseph Cirincione, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “None of his core assertions about Saddam’s growing arsenal of weapons of mass destruction turned out to be true.”
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it is too early to draw such conclusions.
But many experts say the UAV question has long been settled. The drone aircraft uncovered in Iraq has glass viewing ports, with a bracket for mounting some type of camera. As first reported by The Associated Press last August, there was little room to carry the spraying devices described by Powell.
The CIA originally drafted a speech for a UN presentation, which then went to the White House. But what ultimately emerged –after Cheney’s office had been tasked with assembling the material for the speech–was much different from the CIA draft.
The proposed narrative for Powell went something like this, according to an official involved in the preparation for Powell’s speech: Hussein had his procurement agents, who are virtually all over the world, attempt to acquire software that would give him very sophisticated mapping of the eastern United States, allowing him to program a missile with a high degree of accuracy.
But the whole scenario “fell apart like a toothpick house” once Powell and his aides asked for the sourcing on the information, the official said. Several officials said closer inspection showed that Iraq had not sought the software, but that an Australian firm had offered it.
“The vendor, in the interest of making further sales, suggested this to the Iraqis, and there was no confirmation that we could find that the Iraqis had actually purchased the software,” the official said. “We were getting ready to put in the secretary’s statement that they were getting ready to bomb the eastern United States!”