CIA failed to pass info on Iraq weapons: Report

WASHINGTON, JULY 6 (AGENCIES)

The CIA failed to pass on to US President George W Bush before the Iraq war information from relatives of Iraqi scientists that the country had abandoned its programme to develop unconventional weapons, senior government officials said.

The existence of a secret pre-war CIA operation to debrief relatives of Iraqi scientists - and the agency's failure to give their statements to the President and other policymakers - has been uncovered by the Senate Select Committee on intelligence.

The panel has been investigating the government's handling of pre-war intelligence on Iraq after US and British troops failed to uncover any alleged stockpile of chemical and biological weapons.

The report is expected to contain a scathing indictment of the CIA and its leaders for failing to recongise that the evidence they had collected did not justify their assessment that Saddam Hussein had illicit weapons, the New York Times reported quoting the officials.