Senate: faulty intelligence caused war

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The United States would not have gone to war against Iraq if the weakness of prewar intelligence revealed by the Senate had been known, senators have said.

"We in Congress would not have authorized that war ... if we knew what we know now," said Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.V., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The report said: "Most of the major key judgments in the Intelligence Community's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, 'Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction,' either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting."

"Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq," is the product of a 12-month investigation by a bipartisan committee.

"We went to war on false claims," said Rockefeller. As a result, he said, "our nation is more vulnerable today than ever before." The war on terrorism remains a threat, he said, in "a hundred countries," and Osama bin Laden is "potentially ... more back in control."