Today's New York Sun has an interesting quote from Wayne White, the former deputy director in the Office of Analysis for Near East and South Asia in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Mr. Feith's view that questions remain about Iraq's weapons program is also held by the State Department's chief of Iraq intelligence between 2003 and 2005, Wayne White. In an interview this week, Mr. White, said, "Just as the pre-war WMD intelligence was largely wrong, the conclusion after the war that absolutely nothing was in Iraq could also be wrong." ...Mr. White, who counts himself as a critic of the president's decision to go to war, is confident that organized looting from the regime occurred in the first weeks after the invasion. "Efforts were taken by remnants of the Iraqi intelligence services and Republican Guard to destroy portions of sites known to be associated with WMD," he said. "What does that tell you? If there was nothing to hide, why were these sites destroyed? Obviously there was something there. There is evidence to suggest there were files and perhaps even equipment that was destroyed aggressively in the months following the fall of Baghdad." Mr. White says that in those months after the launch of the war he would often sit in weekly meetings to go over the Iraq intelligence, hear repeated reports of sites systematically looted or destroyed, and shake his head. "I was not making much of this at the time and it was pointless. In most cases I was turning to a person sitting next to me, thinking it was over. Game over. The main problem we had at the time was [the] insurgency," he said.
White's observations were also reflected in a New York Times piece published last March. The article, " Looting at Weapons Plants Was Systematic, Iraqi Says," reported on a "highly organized operation," which apparently took place from mid-April to mid-May 2003 at Iraqi weapons sites, "as teams with flatbed trucks and other heavy equipment moved systematically from site to site," collecting "tons of machinery...capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms...." To be continued?