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D. The Sharing of Information - the "Push " Side of the Exchange

(U) Concurrent with its efforts to respond to the UN's request for site information, the CIA began an internal review process in October 2002 to determine what information known about sites considered by the CIA to be top suspect sites should be shared with the UN. This untitled list of sites, set forth in a series of spreadsheets organized by WMD discipline, started small and eventually grew into what would later be called the IC Master Inspection List (IC MIL). Though, as detailed below, there are other IC lists pertaining to suspected Iraqi WMD sites, the IC MIL is the focus of this staff review.

(U) Three documents provided guidance on the Intelligence Community's support for weapons inspections in Iraq: (a) an October 10, 2002, e-mail from the CIA to Intelligence Community officials initiating the inspections support process; (b) National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD)-21: Support for Inspections in Iraq, dated November 2002; and (c) the DCI's January 3, 2003, memorandum designating the Director of WINPAC, as the executive agent responsible for coordinating and facilitating all intelligence activities in support of UNMOVIC and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and forwarding the December 10, 2002, concept of operations for carrying out NSPD-21 Policy.

(U) The process of prioritizing suspect sites began with Intelligence Community officials representing each discipline area (i.e., biological weapons, chemical weapons, nuclear, etc.) being asked to identify the top ten priority sites for inspection. The IC MIL began with about 50-60 sites and ultimately grew to 148 top suspect sites.

(  ) According to the CIA's January 24, 2003, letter to Senator Levin, there were approximately 550 sites on the Intelligence Community's suspect site list. The 148 sites identified on the IC MIL were considered the "top suspect sites for inspection purposes; that is, inspectors are more likely to find something at those sites than other sites." The 148 top suspect sites were further prioritized in the IC MIL as "high," "medium," and "low" priority: 37 were high priority, 68 were medium priority, and 54 were low priority. (Note: the sum of priority sites is 159 not 148 due to the multiple listing of some sites by type of WMD site. For example, one facility is double counted as both a medium priority biological weapons site and a medium priority chemical weapons site. In addition, according to the information provided by the CIA, nine sites on the IC MIL had no priority designation assigned to them.)

(U) The IC MIL prioritization process was based on which site was the best candidate for finding evidence of proscribed WMD activity, including where the Intelligence Community had recent actionable intelligence.

(  ) According to the CIA officials, the UNMOVIC inspectors were overwhelmed quickly after beginning inspections in November 2002, and primarily conducted inventory inspections through December. The CIA officials were concerned about the ability of the UN to handle information from the IC MIL being "pushed" to them. As a result, the CIA timed the release of sensitive information to the UN so the inspectors could quickly inspect and avoid                                  a lengthy delay between receipt of the information and subsequent inspection                                                     . The CIA noted that they had circumstantial evidence                               intelligence that the Iraqis had penetrated the UN inspections process and had received advance warning of some inspections.

(  ) According to United States Government officials, the highest priority suspect sites were briefed to the UN first, followed by lower priority sites. However, the chronology of when the United States Government briefed site packages to the UN indicates that the order of briefings did not always follow this IC MIL high-medium-low priority progression. Certain suspect sites designated medium and low priority in the IC MIL were briefed to the UN before some high priority sites. Additionally, as detailed below, some high priority suspect sites were not briefed to the UN at all.

(  ) It is important to note that the UN was receiving intelligence information from governments other than the United States. The UN estimates that 60% of all the intelligence information it received came from the United States Government, with the balance coming largely from foreign government services. UN officials told the Committee staff that although U.S. intelligence leads had run dry, the UN had intelligence leads from other foreign intelligence services that had not been investigated when inspections were stopped.

(  ) By the time UN inspections were halted in early March 2003, the United States Government had briefed 52 site packages to the UN inspectors. An additional 15 lower priority site packages, labeled by the United States Government as "low-tier sites," were passed to the UN but not briefed, bringing the total of site packages the United States Government took from its internal prioritized list of 148 sites and "pushed" to the UN to 67. However, as noted below, the 15 "lower tier sites" included a mixture of high, medium and low sites.

(  ) These 67 IC MIL site packages were briefed to the UN as follows:

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(  ) At some point in February 2003, according to the United States Government officials, UNMOVIC told the United States Government that the UN inspectors in Iraq were overwhelmed and that the United States Government should stop sending site information. The request was made orally by the UNMOVIC head of intelligence, who confirmed this account but could not recall when in February he made the request of United States Government officials. Neither United States Government officials nor the UNMOVIC head of intelligence recalled when or if a request was made by UNMOVIC for the information-sharing to be renewed. As noted above, the United States Government forwarded nine site briefing packages to the UN in March in addition to the five it provided in late February.