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I. We Judge That We Are Seeing Only a Portion of lraq's WMD Efforts, Owing to Baghdad's Vigorous Denial and Deception Efforts

(U) One of the NIE's key judgments stated, "We judge that we are seeing only a portion of Iraq's WMD efforts, owing to Baghdad's vigorous denial and deception efforts." The NIE's BW section contained a text box titled "Iraq's Denial and Deception (D&D) Program for Biological Weapons." The first sentence of the box stated that "Iraq has a national-level BW D&D program."

(                )                                                              PARAGRAPH DELETED                                                              the intelligence provided to the Committee does not provide a clear link after 1991 between offensive BW related work and the dual-use research DELETED.

(                ) The NIE also states that "Iraq uses codewords to compartmentalize BW program elements, conceal acquisition of BW-related equipment, and impair Western attempts to monitor Iraqi technology acquisition." The NIE cited the use of the codeword "project 600" for BW activity at Iraq's Abu Ghurayb facility, which was in use before the 1991 Gulf War. The Committee was provided with six HUMINT reports concerning the use of codes:

• A 1993 HUMINT report describing the use of the code word "project 600" for BW activity at Iraq's Abu Ghurayb facility before the 1991 Gulf War.
• A 1997 HUMINT report described the use of the codename "313" with the Djerf al Nadaf facility. While Djerf al Nadaf may have a BW connection, the use of a code for this facility is not necessarily specific to BW.
• A report from the HUMINT source code named CURVE BALL who provided most of the IC's understanding of the mobile production capability states that letters were used to describe agents produced in mobile plants.
•                      SENTENCE DELETED                     
• A 2000 HUMINT report described the use of letter-number codes to refer to BW agents. UNSCOM's final report notes that Iraq referred to BW agents with letter code designation in its declarations to the U.N.
• A 2000 HUMINT report that discussed research allegedly underway as of 1997 at a facility run by the Iraqi Intelligence Service in Abu Ghurayb, near Baghdad, focused on how to introduce a number of BW agents into soft drinks and "other mediums." The report stated that the facility's reports referred to BW agents by letter-number codes.

(U) The intelligence provided to the Committee describes the use of codewords to "compartmentalize BW program elements" but no intelligence reports were provided that . described the use of codewords to "conceal acquisition of BW-related equipment, and impair Western attempts to monitor Iraqi technology acquisition." While code words are a denial and deception measure, no intelligence was provided to the Committee that showed an Iraqi "national-level BW D&D program" existed in 2002, as stated in the NIE.