Intelligence on Iraq

An April 23 editorial (“Huge Intelligence Gap Revealed by Iraq”) claims that U.S. intelligence agencies “woefully underestimated” the extent of Iraq’s chemical weapons stocks and production capabilities. This assertion is flat out wrong. In a speech to the Foreign Policy Assn. of New York on Sept. 18, 1990, Judge William H. Webster, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said that “Iraq has a sizable stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, and we know that Saddam has used chemical weapons not only against Iran but against his own Kurdish population. He now has the largest CW program in the Third World. He has a wide range of delivery options, including bombs, shells and artillery rockets.”

Moreover, in a Dec. 14 interview with the Washington Post, Webster stated that Iraqi military forces had a stockpile of “roughly 1,000 tons” of deadly chemical agents on hand, “much of it loaded . . . in almost every type of weapon.”

Despite The Times’ claims, the fact remains that the U.S. intelligence community provided--and continues to provide--accurate, timely and very useful information to policy-makers concerning Iraq’s chemical arsenal.

JOSEPH R. DeTRANI

Director of Public Affairs

Central Intelligence Agency

Washington, D.C.