The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee released a report today alleging that prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, CIA had only sketchy information about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and then overplayed that information to conclude that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in fact possessed them.

The 511-page report is the first of two committee reports on intelligence on Iraq’s possession of chemical and biological weapons. The second, which is due out after the November 2004 presidential election, deals with how the White House used the thin CIA intelligence to justify waging war against Iraq.

Click one of the “Listen” links for a look at the CIA’s pre-war intelligence failure on Iraq, what it means for the current conflict in Iraq, the U.S., and the impending 2004 presidential election.

Guests:

John Diamond, correspondent for USA Today covering intelligence

Mark Danner, staff writer for the New Yorker and professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley

Raymond McGovern, former analyst for the CIA, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity

John Fund, editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), member of Senate Intelligence Committee.