Claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was CIA failure, former deputy director says

The claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was one of the Central Intelligence Agency’s biggest failures of the last 20 years, former deputy director Michael Morell said at a Newsmaker May 18. Morell said that most of the world’s intelligence agencies made the same mistake.

Morell talked about the CIA’s successes and failures, which are discussed in his new book, “The Great Was of Our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism‑‑‑From al Qaida to ISIS.” Morell’s presentation focused primarily on the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Syria.

The ability of the CIA to stop attacks on the United States homeland has been one of its biggest successes, Morell said. Morell was involved in the planning that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011.

The recent killing of Abu Sayyaf, claimed to be the oil minister of the Islamic State, another name for ISIS, was a significant blow to the group, Morell said. It would have been great if he had been captured alive, but the U.S. should be able to gain intelligence from his wife and the laptops that were captured, he said.

Morell was optimistic that the situation in Iraq would soon change, but he was not so optimistic about Syria. There are very few moderate fighters left to train in Syria, he said.

The Arab Spring was a boon to al-Qaida because it left countries in the Middle East either unable to fight the group, which is what occurred in Libya, or unwilling to fight it, which is what happened in Egypt, Morell said. He added that the Pakistanis were very successful in fighting al-Qaida after 9/11.

Seymour Hirsh’s claim that Pakistani intelligence and military knew about the bin Laden raid in advance is “rubbish," Morell said. The U.S. didn’t learn that bin Laden was in Abbottabad from the Pakistanis or anyone else, he said. Morell said he was in the room when President Obama said he would not inform the Pakistanis of the raid in advance.

Morell mentioned several groups that could pose a threat to the U.S. in the future, including al-Qaida in Yemen and the “senior leadership” of al-Qaida. Some of the most recent attempted attacks on the U.S. originated from al-Qaida in Yemen, he said.

In addition to the Middle East, the Islamic State has reached into Bangladesh and India, Morell said.