Iraq

Ex-CIA chief warns of blow to U.S. credibility

WASHINGTON - Former CIA director John Deutch told Congress Thursday that failure to find any chemical or biological weapons in Iraq would represent "an intelligence failure ... of massive proportions."

"It means that ... leaders of the American public based (their) support for the most serious foreign policy judgments - the decision to go to war - on an incorrect intelligence judgment," Deutch said during testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

The impact, he said, would be felt "the next time military intervention is judged necessary to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction - for example in North Korea - there will be skepticism about the quality of our intelligence."

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's plan for defeating insurgents in Iraq relies heavily on applying "a full-court press" to persuade more countries to send troops to relieve overstretched U.S. forces, senior defense officials said Thursday.

In separate appearances at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States is negotiating with Pakistan, India and Turkey to supply tens of thousands of troops. Without them, Myers told the Senate Armed Services Committee, the United States will not be able to reduce its military presence in Iraq for months, and possibly years.

Referring to the roughly 30,000 troops that other countries have already promised, Myers said: "It needs to be higher than that." Myers said no specific request has been made to NATO yet.

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