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Tuesday, April 01 2003 @ 08:00 PM EST
The France Press Agency reports the U.S. government should be "embarrassed" over the apparent failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main justification for going to war, retired intelligence officials said Thursday.
Former defense intelligence analyst Eugene Betit said, "It's going to be very embarrassing when it turns out they have nothing to declare," while Ray Close, a former CIA station chief, said: "I'm hoping they will be embarrassed into acknowledging a role for some independent body. And who could it be but the UN?"
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix is calling for inspectors to return to Iraq to determine whether the weapons allegations had any foundation. Meanwhile, Russia said it would not support lifting UN sanctions against Iraq unless UN inspectors confirmed the absence of weapons of mass destruction.
The important statement comes from Retired CIA intelligence analyst Ray McGovern told AFP: "Some of my colleagues are virtually certain that there will be some weapons of mass destruction found, even though they might have to be planted."
"I'm just as sure that some few will be found, but not in an amount that by any stretch would justify the charge of a threat against the US or anyone else." And he said: "Even if the planting was discovered by and by, they'll say, 'ok, the weapons were planted - fine.'"
McGovern was referring to a remark by Secretary of State Colin Powell after it emerged that a letter purporting to show that Iraq had sought to procure uranium from Niger - a key argument in the case for war and cited in President George W. Bush's State of the Union address - was a forgery.
McGovern and 24 other former intelligence officials in the CIA, State and Defense Departments, Army Intelligence and FBI formed a group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
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