Delivered Into Enemy Hands - Human Rights Watch

Then-US President George W. Bush used this information in an October 2002 speech about
Iraq. 387 And Secretary of State Colin Powell used it as a key piece of evidence during his
historic speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, when he tried to rally interna-
tional support for an invasion of Iraq. 388 But over a year earlier, the US Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA) had already discredited the information. A February 22, 2002, DIA cable
stated,
This is the first report from Ibn al-Shaykh [al-Libi] in which he claims Iraq
assisted al-Qa’ida’s CBRN [chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear]
efforts.… It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely
this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers. Ibn al-Shaykh has
been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios
to the debriefers he knows will retain their interest. Saddam’s regime is
intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary movements. Moreover
Bagdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a group it cannot control. 389
Powell later indicated he regretted using the information during his UN speech. 390 Although
senior Bush administration officials would likely have been aware that the information was
not credible, they did not share this with Powell before his speech. 391 Indeed, in January
387 “President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat: Remarks by the President on Iraq,” speech by President George W. Bush,
Cincinnati Union Terminal, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 7, 2002, transcript available at http://georgewbushwhitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html
(accessed August 29, 2012).
388 Isikoff and Corn, Hubris, p. 187. See also Michael Hirsh, John Barry, and Daniel Klaidman, “A Tortured Debate,”
Newsweek, June 21, 2004. Al-Libi was a principal source for Bush administration claims that al Qaeda collaborated with
Saddam Hussein, particularly the assertion by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations that Iraq had provided
training in “poisons and gases” for al Qaeda. See also “A Policy of Evasion and Deception: Speech to the United Nations on
Iraq,” speech by Colin Powell, the United Nations, February 5, 2003, transcript available at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/transcripts/powelltext_020503.html (accessed June 3, 2012).
389 SSCI Sept. 8, 2006 Report, p. 77.
390 Steven R. Weisman, “Powell Calls His U.N. Speech a Lasting Blot on His Record,” Washington Post, September 9, 2005,
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/politics/09powell.html (accessed June 2, 2012) (quoting Powell in an interview
saying it was “devastating” to learn that some intelligence agents knew the information he had was unreliable but did not
speak up).
391 A “well-informed Republican source familiar with the details,” told Jane Mayer that “top CIA officials had to have known
about the warnings. ‘The entire intelligence community would have had access to the DIA analysis. If you were on Intel-
Link’—the classified government computer system—‘anyone reading about that case would see it,’ [the Republican source
familiar with the details] said.” Mayer, The Dark Side, p. 137.
See also SSCI Sept. 8, 2006 Report, p. 76-78; and Letter from to John D. Rockefeller IV, vice chairman, Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, to Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, director, Defense Intelligence Agency, October 18, 2005,
123 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2012