A high-ranking CIA official briefed NATO defense ministers Tuesday on Iraq, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, prompting tough and searching questions, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said.
United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the briefing by CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin was based on shared intelligence and echoed the conclusions of a British report released earlier Tuesday, according to AFP. "If you're all on the same sheet of music, why you tend to sing the same song," Rumsfeld told reporters afterwards.
"The detailed information that was presented today is sobering and as I said not particularly surprising," Robertson told reporters. "A lot of searching questions were asked this afternoon after the briefing took place," he said, adding that discussion of Iraq was expected to continue during a working dinner.
Rumsfeld said a copy of the British report was distributed to the defense ministers. He added that no one challenged the facts of the US briefing, which he said was based on "the best shared intelligence information on the subject of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction and terrorists." (Albawaba.com)
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