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Senate closed hearings to probe Iraq intel
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that his panel will hold closed-door hearings next week as part of its ongoing review of U.S. intelligence on Iraq. The hearings won't be a formal joint inquiry sought by Democrats. The move comes amid questions about whether the Bush administration manipulated intelligence data to bolster its case for war in Iraq. U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, made it clear he has seen no evidence any intelligence data was slanted or politicized, but he said allegations from anonymous officials saying they were under pressure to "skew their analysis" were serious and "must be cleared up." (Full story) "I can tell you, however, that the committee has yet to hear from any intelligence official expressing such concerns," Roberts said. "If any officials believe, however, that they have been pressured to alter their assessment, they have an obligation, and I encourage them to contact the committee." He said criticism of the intelligence agencies has been divisive and could hurt national security. The Bush administration has come under fire from some Democrats and critics abroad because no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. U.S. and British statements before the war asserted that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was harboring and developing such banned weapons. Roberts said his panel would work with the Senate Armed Service Committee. But a joint formal investigation, he said, would be premature. He said his committee is reviewing intelligence documents supplied by CIA Director George Tenet. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Virginia, said his panel also is reviewing the CIA material. "The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that anyone in this administration has hyped or cooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose, and I regret that those allegations have been made," Warner said. Meanwhile, CIA Director George Tenet appointed former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay to advise the agency on how to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, CIA officials said. Kay, 63, will be based in Iraq, the officials said. He will be in charge of "refining the overall approach for the search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," one official said. The Pentagon's new Iraq Survey Group -- about 1,400 experts from the United States, Britain and Australia -- will "provide direct support" to Kay, according to the CIA announcement. Kay worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency and for the United Nations Special Commission as a weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. Convoy attacked in FallujahA U.S. convoy was attacked Wednesday by assailants armed with rocket-propelled grenades north of the central Iraqi town of Fallujah, a hotbed of resistance against coalition forces since the toppling of Saddam's regime. A U.S. military source said the attackers fired two grenades at the convoy of troops from a field artillery unit with the 3rd Infantry Division. Both rounds missed and no U.S. troops were wounded. The soldiers chased the attackers and detained five Iraqis, the source said. It was the latest in a series of attacks in Iraq that the Pentagon said has claimed the lives of more than 30 U.S. troops since May 1, the day President Bush announced the end of major combat operations in the country. Clashes between Iraqi civilians in Fallujah and U.S. troops resulted in the deaths of 17 Iraqis during three days of violence April 30 through May 2. Seven U.S. soldiers were wounded. Since then, U.S. military commanders redeployed 4,000 troops from the 3rd Infantry Division in response to attacks against U.S. forces. On Tuesday, a soldier from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division was killed and a second soldier critically wounded in an attack on a weapons-collections point in southwest Baghdad, U.S. officials said. U.S. Central Command said two men got out of a van about 275 yards (250 meters) away from the soldiers' positions and fired rocket-propelled grenades at them.
One grenade struck a vehicle, and the other landed near the soldiers. Witnesses said the attackers fled down an alleyway. U.S. forces increased patrols and searches in an effort to find the assailants. The head of the Iraqi National Congress on Tuesday blamed the attacks in Iraq on Saddam, saying that the deposed leader was paying a bounty for each U.S. soldier killed. Former Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi told the Council on Foreign Relations that Saddam was "moving in an arc around the Tigris River," starting northeast of Baghdad. He said he had information from credible sources that the former Iraqi president wants revenge and has obtained two suicide bombing vests for attacks on U.S. forces. (Full story) Civilian deathsAt least 3,240 civilians were killed in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, including 1,896 in Baghdad, according to a study of hospital records and death certificates conducted by The Associated Press. The report was based on records from 60 of Iraq's 124 hospitals from March 20, when the war began, to April 20. The 64 hospitals that were not visited were in dangerous or inaccessible areas, the AP said. The news agency said the actual number of civilian deaths was probably "significantly higher" because it did not include figures from hospitals that did not distinguish between civilian and military deaths and because some hospitals' records were incomplete or damaged in the fighting. U.S. and British officials told the AP that coalition forces tried to minimize civilian casualties and that they did not count civilian deaths. Other developments• Another Iraqi listed as "Most Wanted" has been captured by U.S. troops in Baghdad, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday. The official said Hussein al-Tikriti, the Iraqi Army Air Corps Commander and No. 132 on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis, was captured May 26 during a search by special operations forces looking for illegal weapons in Baghdad. No other details of his capture or where he is being held were immediately available. • The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the death of an Iraqi detainee at a coalition facility near Nasiriya, U.S. Central Command announced in a statement Wednesday. The detainee was found dead June 6 and had been in custody since May 3, according to Central Command. • One of Iraq's main offshore oil terminals is expected to reopen next week, which would mark the first time Iraq has exported oil since the toppling of Saddam's regime, acting Iraqi oil minister Thamir Ghadbhan told L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq. (Full story) Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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