Wednesday, March 22, 2006

CIA paid Iraqi diplomat $100K for WMD intel, then ignored him

According to NBC, the CIA made secret contact with Iraqi diplomat Naji Sabri during his September 2002 trip to UN, in an attempt to get insider information on Iraq's WMD capabilities. CIA officers allegedly met in a New York City hotel room with an intermediary who represented the diplomat, and paid $100,000 in "good faith" money. Sabri reported that Iraq had no significant, active biological capabilites, and that Saddam was not close to having a nuclear bomb.

Obviously, given Saddam Hussein's track record, a representative of his regime is not someone the rest of the world should blindly trust. But if the CIA thought that it was worth paying Sabri $100,000 for insider information, why didn't the agency include the information in its October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate?

"Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details" [MSNBC]
CIA's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate [National Security Archive]