US President George W Bush on Wednesday vowed to advance the cause of freedom and democracy everywhere, including the Middle East.
"America," said Bush, "is pursuing a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. We are challenging the enemies of reform, confronting the allies of terror, and expecting a higher standard from our friends."
In a speech to open a US Library of Congress exhibition on the late British leader Winston Churchill, Bush said on Iraq: "The nation of Iraq was for decades an ally of terror ruled by the cruelty and caprice of one man. Today, the people of Iraq are moving toward self-government. Our coalition is working with the Iraqi Governing Council to draft a basic law with a bill of rights. Because our coalition acted, terrorists lost a source of reward money for suicide bombings. Because we acted, nations of the Middle East no longer need to fear reckless aggression from a ruthless dictator who had the intent and capability to inflict great harm on his people and people around the world. Saddam Hussein now sits in a prison cell, and Iraqi men and women are no longer carried to torture chambers and rape rooms, and dumped in mass graves. ... Iraq is no longer a grave and gathering threat to free nations. Iraq is a free nation."
Meanwhile, Director George Tenet of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intends to try and correct what he considers "misperceptions" regarding prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, an intelligence official disclosed on Wednesday.
In a speech at Georgetown University on Thursday, Tenet will "correct some of the misperceptions and downright inaccuracies concerning what the intelligence community reported and did not report regarding Iraq," the U.S. intelligence official said.
"He will point out it is premature to reach conclusions," the official added.
Tenet is expected to reject some of the criticisms that have been leveled at the intelligence agencies.
"People who have leaped to the conclusion that the intelligence was all wrong simply aren't right," the intelligence official said. "Those who say the search for WMD is 85 percent finished are 100 percent wrong."
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
