[A-List] US state: turf wars over Iraq

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Rumsfeld Denies Rift Exists Between Pentagon and C.I.A.
By THOM SHANKER
New York Times, October 25, 2002

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld went to great
lengths today to describe a collegial, cooperative relationship between the
Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, even as he noted "differences
of opinions" over how to interpret data on terrorist cells and adversary
states like Iraq.

"It is an excellent relationship between the Department of Defense and the
intelligence community," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

"There are always going to be people who have different intelligence views
within the agency, and there's no question but that on some of these
important terrorism issues, you're seeing differences of opinions out of the
intelligence community and the Central Intelligence Agency," he added.

Mr. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon's senior leaders ask tough questions of the
intelligence reports they receive, but he described the debate as "effective
interaction."

He spoke at an afternoon news conference that his aides said was organized
specifically to respond to reports of rifts between the Pentagon's senior
civilian leaders and the C.I.A., and to counter those who say Mr. Rumsfeld
and his advisers are trying to mold intelligence findings to bolster those
in the administration who advocate attacking Iraq.

Mr. Rumsfeld cited an editorial in The New York Times on Wednesday that
called on him to present what he described as "bulletproof" evidence of
links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, and also an article today in the newspaper
describing an intelligence unit at the Pentagon assigned to mine reports
from other spy agencies for information on Al Qaeda and Iraq that had been
missed or ignored.

Advocates of the unit's work say its assignment is to use powerful computers
and new software to mine for data on the capacities of President Saddam
Hussein of Iraq, and of his suspected ties to terrorist groups - information
that might have been diluted or even ignored by intelligence analysts who do
not believe in the severity of the Iraqi threat.

But critics have said the team is at work finding only information that fits
the most hawkish views on Iraq and risks politicizing the intelligence
process. Should America go to war to topple Mr. Hussein, then public support
requires a full and fair discussion of the evidence against the Iraqi
leader, the critics say.

Mr. Rumsfeld said today that information he cited last month on Iraq's links
to Al Qaeda was "bulletproof" because it was compiled and vetted by the
C.I.A.

"When I said something was bulletproof, I was referring to the five or six
sentences that I had read here off of a piece of paper which I'd received
from the agency," he said.

Mr. Rumsfeld had cited information indicating that contacts between Al Qaeda
and Iraq stretched back a decade and had increased since 1998, that Qaeda
members had been in Baghdad, and that Al Qaeda had sought help in acquiring
weapons of mass destruction from Iraq.

Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said that when he or Mr.
Rumsfeld testify in closed-door hearings of Congress, they draw directly on
texts prepared by the C.I.A. so that the administration can present a
unified view on threats to national security.

Mr. Wolfowitz said the work of the new Pentagon intelligence unit was
responsive to specific questions from Pentagon officials and that it was
valuable as another source of information.

"I don't think that the facts that may be uncovered by people who think
there is more of a connection are the reliable facts, and the facts that are
uncovered by people who think there isn't one are unreliable facts," Mr.
Wolfowitz said. "I just think that the two different perspectives will give
you different sets of information, and I sure as heck wouldn't want to be
dependent on only one or the other."