XV. POWELL SPEECH – TERRORISM PORTION (U) On February 5, 2003, Secretary Powell delivered a speech before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which outlined Iraq's non compliance with UNSC Resolutions and provided a detailed presentation of intelligence in each of the areas of Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction programs. Secretary Powell told the UN that, ... every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. (U) The drafting of the terrorism portion of Secretary Powell's speech began in late December 2002 to early January 2003 according to a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst who worked on the draft. At that time, it was not clear in what form or by whom the presentation would be made. A draft was requested by White House staff following a discussion about how to present the U.S. position on Iraq's links to terrorism. Following the discussion, the White House submitted the request to individuals in the CIA's executive suite, who passed it to the Director of Central Intelligence's (DCI) Counterterrorist Center (CTC). According to a CTC analyst interviewed by Committee staff, dozens of analysts worked on the draft. In his estimate, the group of analysts included CTC drafters as well as analysts from the CTC and other CIA offices who were responsible for "fact checking." These analysts reviewed each piece of raw intelligence that was incorporated into the terrorism portion of the speech and made sure that each item was credible and corroborated and accurately portrayed by the language in the speech. (U) According to State Department officials, the general operating principle set by Secretary Powell in preparing his presentation was that any intelligence that was included had to be corroborated. The official told Committee staff that, "single source information did not go in the speech." The CTC analyst interviewed by Committee staff indicated that in the final weeks leading up to the February 5 presentation, the CIA analysts responsible for preparing the terrorism portion were heavily engaged with Secretary Powell on ". . . everything from substance to style to Secretary Powell's personal 'I don't like that'...." (U) To ensure that the speech was supported by solid intelligence, the Secretary and his staff went to the CIA in the final days of January 2003 to work on the speech draft and to check the intelligence information and sources that were cited in the speech. CIA analysts who participated in these meetings also told Committee staff that the Secretary only wanted to use solid intelligence in the speech and wanted the language carefully reviewed by the CIA analysts. No other intelligence agencies worked on the speech, although the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) said that INR prepared some comments on the speech draft. The INR comments were published by INR as a information memorandum to Secretary Powell dated January 31, 2003 entitled "Making the Case for Iraq's Links to al-Qaida.” This information memorandum was not provided to the CIA. (U) Because of the CIA's central role in preparing input for and checking the accuracy of Secretary Powell's speech and because the speech was intended as an explanation to the world of the evidence the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) had on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism, the Committee reviewed the language in the speech and the intelligence that supported the assessments and statements made in the speech. (U) All of the information in the terrorism portion of the speech was from intelligence that had previously been described in IC finished intelligence assessments. Each of the examples of Iraq's links to terrorism cited by Secretary Powell was supported by intelligence reports. Each of the issues covered by Secretary Powell has also been assessed in the section of this report entitled Iraqi Support for Terrorism. The CIA provided 64 intelligence reports to support Secretary Powell's statements on terrorism. The reports supporting the terrorism portion of the speech were from a variety of sources and intelligence disciplines and were broken down as follows: SIGINT HUMINT Foreign Government Service Detainee Debriefs NIMA Imagery Intelligence Brief CIA Operational Cables Link Analysis Chart Iraqi Opposition DIA Finished Intelligence Reports Press |