US presidential panel critical of CIA and other U.S. spy agencies

The report on US intelligence over the Iraq’s weapon by the presidential commission is to be presented to the White House on Thursday.

The mission of the panel was to study the spy agencies’ ability to “collect, process, analyze and disseminate information concerning the capabilities, intentions and activities of foreign powers.”

The report, criticized the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies for failing to properly assess Saddam Hussein’s maneuvers and dismissed the conclusion that Saddam’s fleet of “unmanned aerial vehicles,” and “mobile vehicles” posed a major threat; claims repeated by the U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top U.S. officials ahead of the war.

In drafting their report, the nine-member commission held formal meetings with Bush and senior White House officials, as well as top administration intelligence and foreign policy officials. It also interviewed former CIA directors and academic experts on weapons proliferation.

The report singles out former CIA director George Tenet for particular criticism. It also includes what one top U.S. official called “a hearty condemnation” of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, two of the biggest intelligence organizations.

Moreover, the panel recommends major reforms in the sharing of information among intelligence agencies that goes beyond the legislation adopted by Congress late last year, which set up a central director of national intelligence to coordinate action among all 15 agencies.

The unclassified version of the report, more than 400 pages long, doesn’t detail the holes in the U.S. intelligence about North Korea and Iran. Most of these issues are included in a much longer classified version, which is highly critical of U.S. failures to penetrate Iran’s nuclear program.