Thursday
Feb172005
Scientist says US censored Iraq WMD report
Thursday, February 17, 2005 at 04:52AM
An Australian scientist involved in the
US search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq said the CIA censored
his reporting so that it suggested the weapons existed, according to an
interview on Monday. Rod Barton, a microbiologist who worked for
Australian intelligence for more than 20 years, told Australian
Broadcasting Corp television’s “Four Corners” public affairs programme
he quit the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) in disgust at the censorship of its
interim report presented to the US Congress in March last year. A
transcript of the programme, which was airing Monday night, was
provided in advance to The Associated Press. “We left the impression
that, yes, maybe there were ... WMD out there,” Barton said. “So I
thought it was dishonest.” Barton, an experienced weapons hunter who
joined the UN search for Saddam Hussein’s illicit arsenal in 1991, said
the censorship in the US investigation began after Charles Duelfer
became the new head of ISG in February 2004. Barton said Duelfer wanted
“a different style of report altogether” which he had discussed with US
President George W Bush and the CIA. Barton said the report was to have
no conclusions. “I said to him, ‘I believe it’s dishonest,”‘ Barton
told the programme. “If we know certain things and we’re asked to
provide a report, we should say what we found and what we haven’t found
and put that in the report.” Duelfer’s staff and senior CIA staff had
stipulated what “politically difficult” information could not be
included in the report, Barton said. The ISG was allowed to mention a
find of aluminum pipes but were not allowed to mention that their
probable intended use was not nuclear. [more]