[Media-watch] Israeli Report Cites Faulty Info on Iraq

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=6&u=/ap/israel_iraq

Israeli Report Cites Faulty Info on Iraq

1 hour, 48 minutes ago


By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Erroneous Israeli warnings about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction ahead of last year's U.S.-led invasion were based on speculation, not fact, parliamentary investigators said Sunday, but stressed that intelligence agencies had not tried to mislead Israel's Western allies. 

A report released Sunday said Israeli intelligence concluded there was a high probability that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, despite little evidence backing that assessment, the report said. Estimates of Iraq's weapons arsenal also increased inexplicably ahead of the war, the report found. 

Still, the report stressed that the intelligence agencies did not deliberately mislead Israeli officials or try to push the United States into war. The report delivered a blow to the reputation of Israel's intelligence agencies which were seen as highly effective. 

"The committee ... did not find any signs that show an attempt to distort the intelligence picture in order to stress the necessity of going to war," it said. 
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