USA: WMD LIES

ISP: When In Trouble, Blame the CIA

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) - Badly wounded by the total collapse of its pre-war contentions that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, the administration of President George W. Bush has embarked on a strategy of diversion and delay.

It hopes to divert attention from the role played by senior administration officials in influencing and exaggerating the intelligence assessments of the Iraqi threat in the run-up to the war by focusing debate instead on flaws in the intelligence and how it can be improved in the future.

It hopes to delay until well after the November presidential elections the reporting deadline for a proposed commission that will study the fiasco.

''This is damage control'', said one Congressional aide, who added the president's re-election chances might well hinge on whether he is able to pull off the strategy. ''Bush wants to get this out of the headlines and into a commission that won't say anything until he's re-elected''