Scientist says US censored Iraq WMD report
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]