CIA Official Refused Role in Powell’s Iraq Speech, Morell Writes

The Bush administration’s claims about Iraq’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs were later exposed as falsehoods or exaggerations.

Michael Morell, former deputy director and acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Photographer: Julia Schmalz/Bloomberg

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By Tony Capaccio and John Walcott

May 4, 2015 at 3:25 AM UTC

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The CIA’s top analyst recused herself from clearing the intelligence used in then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s 2003 speech to the United Nations describing Iraq’s alleged arsenal of biological and chemical weapons, according to a new book by the spy agency’s former acting director.

Jami Miscik, the deputy director of intelligence at the time, declined to participate in the exercise because she didn’t agree with then-CIA Director George Tenet’s decision to accede to Powell’s request to review all intelligence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and finalize a working draft of the speech in a CIA conference room, writes Michael Morell.