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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=6&u=/ap/israel_iraq"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=6&u=/ap/israel_iraq</FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3>Israeli Report Cites Faulty Info on Iraq<BR><BR>1
hour, 48 minutes ago<BR><BR><BR>By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press
Writer<BR><BR>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.
<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>"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. </FONT></FONT></DIV>
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