“The most contentious of the NSA [National Security Agency] SIGINT [signals intelligence] material used in the [October 1, 2002] NIE [National Intelligence Estimate] alleged that the Iraqis were developing unmanned drones for the purpose of delivering chemical or biological weapons to targets in the United States. This claim was largely based on an inferential reading by the CIA analysts of a small number of NSA intercepts concerning Iraqi defense contractor Ibn-Firnas’s purchase through an Australia-based middleman of mapping software for a prototype drone from a company in Taiwan called Advantech. Indeed, the mapping covered the United States–and the entire rest of the world. Once again, the CIA opted for the worst-case scenario, basing its conclusions on ‘analysis of special intelligence.’ The phrase ‘special intelligence’ of course refers to SIGINT. Only after the end of the war did U.S. intelligence experts get to examine prototypes of the Iraqi drone, and they found it incapable of reaching the United States.”
– Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Pages 238-239