10/4/2002

Following the release of the classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on October 1, 2002, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) called for an unclassified version as well. “In response, on October 4 [2002], [CIA Director George] Tenet presented a twenty-five-page document called ‘Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs.’ But it was exactly the opposite of what Graham had requested. According to Graham, ‘It represented an unqualified case that Hussein possessed [WMDs]…and omitted the dissenting opinions contained in the classified version. Its conclusions, such as ‘If Baghdad acquired sufficient weapons-grade fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year,’ underscored the White House’s claim that exactly such material was being provided from Africa to Iraq.’ ”

 – Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, Page 265