US has limited intelligence on Iran, N. Korea: panel
AFP
Date: 03-31-05
WASHINGTON (AFP) - For all the controversy over intelligence lapses in Iraq, the United States still lacks vital information on other potential nuclear threats such as Iran and North Korea, a presidential panel said.
"We still know disturbingly little about the weapons programs and even less about the intentions of many of our most dangerous adversaries," the bipartisan commission said in its final report to President George W. Bush.
It said a year-long inquiry on intelligence failures that focused on Iraq also dealt with efforts in "countries that pose current proliferation threats, including Iran, North Korea, China and Russia."
Most of the findings were classified, the panel said. "But we can say here that we found that we have only limited access to critical information about several of these high-priority intelligence targets."
The commission rejected suggestions that the intelligence failures in Iraq were an isolated case and said such problems "are still all too common."
The US intelligence community "has not kept pace" with the spread of weapons of mass destruction and increasing eagerness of terrorists to acquire them, it said.
The report said that holes in intelligence on potential threats existed "across the board" and in some cases the United States "knows less now than it did five or 10 years ago."
Washington has accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a guise to develop atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Britain, France and Germany are leading talks with the Iranians to wean them off their suspected nuclear weapons ambitions with offers of trade, technology and security benefits. Little progress has been reported.
North Korea has been open about its nuclear arms program and says it has already manufactured bombs. Six-party talks with Pyongyang, including the United States and regional countries, ground to a halt last year.
The presidential commission's had some good news on at least one front, praising "innovative" US intelligence efforts on Libya's now-abandoned nuclear arms program as "fundamentally a success story."
"The Intelligence Community assessed correctly the state of Libya's nuclear and chemical weapons programs," the report said.
It said the use of new techniques to penetrate the global sales network of Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan "allowed the US government to pressure Libya into dismantling these programs."
The report also said that US intelligence agencies had made "great strides" in counter-terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks, "in particular with respect to tactical operations overseas." It did not elaborate.
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