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E. Impact of Increased Collection on Analysis

(                ) Representatives from each collection discipline reported to Committee staff that collection increased significantly in their areas after the recommendations of the CCDC were implemented. Committee staff asked the collectors how they work with the all-source analysts to make sure that when they see a large increase in collection, that they understand that the increase is a result of an increase in collection, not necessarily an increase in activity by the Iraqis. An analyst who worked on the Iraq WMD CCDC study told Committee staff that WMD analysts regularly participated in NICB meetings on all WMD collection issues. This analyst noted that "there was a constant feedback mechanism available throughout this period from certainly 2001 through the present that enabled [analysts] to get a gauge of whether this was a collection bias or if it was new collection or if it was a scale-up in activities." This same analyst also noted that "in some places, [the IC] was collecting                                           . . . in other cases [the IC] was collecting for the                                           that had been under way for quite some time . . . and frequently the reporting would show that."

(                ) Comments from analysts to Committee staff, however, suggest that some Iraq WMD analysts did not believe that collection had increased significantly as a result of the improved effort against Iraq's WMD. A CIA BW analyst told Committee staff, "we increased our collection efforts, but that did not necessarily equate to increased collection. We tried very hard to focus them to collect on areas we thought were most important, but it did not necessarily translate into us getting more collection." Two analysts from CIA's office of Near East and South Asia Analysis (NESA),                                                                       , told Committee staff that they did not notice an increase in collection as a result of the CCDC.

(                ) While some analysts did not believe that collection had increased, several analysts pointed to intelligence reporting obtained by the IC after late 2000 (and after the IC began implementing the CCDC study recommendations) as having played a significant role in their assessments that Iraq had increased its WMD activities.                      SENTENCE DELETED                      Imagery reports from 2002 on | were key to chemical analysts assessments that Iraq had and was producing chemical weapons (CW). In addition, intelligence assessments on all of Iraq's suspect WMD programs - nuclear, chemical, biological, and delivery programs, pointed to increased procurement activity after 2000 as part of the judgment that Iraq had increased WMD activity.