Former Israeli Intelligence Official Criticizes

Former Israeli Intelligence Official Criticizes

Former Israeli Intelligence Official Criticizes Israeli Assessments on Iraq One of the problems with this report is that it might be interpreted by those opposed to Israel as further proof that Israel wanted the U.S. to involve itself in Irag and the M.E.

A former Israeli intelligence officer charged Thursday that Israeli agencies produced a flawed picture of Iraqi weapons capabilities and substantially contributed to mistakes made in U.S. and British pre-war assessments on Iraq.

The comments of reserve Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom represented an unusual criticism of the Israeli intelligence community, long regarded as one of the world's best. Prior to his retirement in 1998, Brom served in Israeli military intelligence for 25 years, and acted as the deputy chief of planning for the Israeli army.

Career officers in Israel traditionally maintain close ties with military colleagues even after retirement. Brom's research was conducted under the aegis of Israel's leading strategic affairs think tank, Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center.

Brom said he was directing his remarks at Military Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, and the Mossad intelligence agency.

The army declined to comment. The Mossad did not immediately return a message.

Brom first raised his concerns in a report, "The War in Iraq: An Intelligence Failure?" The article was published this week in "Strategic Assessment," the quarterly bulletin the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, where he works as a researcher.

American and British leaders used the purported existence of the weapons, including chemical and biological agents, as one of the main justifications for going to war with Iraq earlier this year. [more]

Posted by at December 5, 2003 10:00 AM


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