US panel to explore Iraq weapons intelligence

The US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee yesterday was to hold its first hearing on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction since allegations that top US officials may have hyped the threat posed by Baghdad to build a case for war.

Lawmakers will review what intelligence agencies told administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq's alleged biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs before the United States launched the war in March.

President George W. Bush and top administration officials cited the threat from Iraq's banned weapons programmes as the main justification for war.

Critics have questioned whether the administration portrayed a more imminent threat than was supported by the intelligence, and whether intelligence officers were pressured to produce analyses that would help policymakers make a stronger case for war.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's main war ally, has also come under fire for the failure to discover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and has denied allegations that he "sexed up" evidence about them.

US lawmakers on the House panel will question intelligence analysts at the closed-door hearing about the factors that went into compiling the National Intelligence Estimate reports on Iraq's weapons programs.

The hearing will focus on the latest classified NIE report on Iraq's weapons programs that was produced in October.

Lawmakers planned to raise questions about the process through which the report was put together, how the information was used and whether it differed from other intelligence estimates, congressional aides said.

The classified report's basic findings are mirrored in a public CIA report also issued in October on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, an intelligence official said.

That public report, which is on CIA's Web site at www.cia.gov, said: "Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of UN restrictions; if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade."