CIA: Assessment of Syria's WMD exaggerated

In a new dispute over interpreting intelligence data, the CIA and other agencies objected vigorously to a Bush administration assessment of the threat of Syria's weapons of mass destruction that was to be presented Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

After the objections, the planned testimony by Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, a leading administration hawk, was delayed until September.

U.S. officials told Knight Ridder that Bolton was prepared to tell members of a House of Representatives International Relations subcommittee that Syria's development of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons had progressed to such a point that they posed a threat to stability in the region.

The CIA and other intelligence agencies said that assessment was exaggerated.
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Bolton is one of the leading neocon hawks using not verified information to push war.

CNN -- Democrats see GOP looking for a scapegoat on intelligence flap

Some of the toughest critics of CIA Director George Tenet are Republicans. And that has some Democrats mighty suspicious. They think GOP lawmakers are trying to insulate the White House from criticism over prewar intelligence relating to Iraq.

"The credibility of the president is on the line," charged Sen. Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, who took to the Senate floor Thursday to charge that the White House pressed the CIA to include questionable information about Iraq's nuclear ambitions in President Bush's State of the Union address.

The real problem, as the spy veteran's know, is the neocon clique around Rumsfled and Cheney.