The U.S. Senate is expected to release
a report Friday blaming the Central Intelligence Agency for faulty intelligence
used to justify the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The bipartisan report, prepared by the Senate Intelligence Committee, is
harshly critical of the intelligence agency's performance in the months leading
up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"
The report is full of omissions, errors, inconsistencies, failures on the part
of the CIA, and appropriately so," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat
and a member of the committee.
The 400-page report is a public version of the classified document completed
by the Intelligence Committee last month. The report is expected to increase
congressional calls for reform of intelligence agencies.
The chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas
Republican, said last week the report "begs for changes within the intelligence
community."
The report does not address the issue of how the Bush administration used
the intelligence to make the case for war. That will be the focus of another
phase of the panel's inquiry.
Democrats say the administration manipulated intelligence assessments about
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and Iraq's alleged ties to the al-Qaida
terrorist network to win support for the war.
The report's release comes as CIA Director George Tenet is preparing to leave
the agency Saturday. Deputy Director John McLaughlin is to succeed Mr. Tenet,
until a permanent successor is nominated by the president and confirmed by
the Senate.
Mr. Tenet announced his resignation last month, citing personal reasons.