(CBS) While diplomatic maneuvering continues over Turkish bases and a new United Nations resolution, inside Iraq, U.N. arms inspectors are privately complaining about the quality of U.S. intelligence and accusing the United States of sending them on wild-goose chases.
This is one of the big points hurting the legitimacy of the pro-war crowd. If you know that Iraq has weapons, and may know where they are, and your mission is to destroy those - nothing else (this is the only legal argument standing) - why are you preventing its happening while you have the means??
Sure, sources may be compromised. But would it not be better to (possibly, it's not certain they would die) sacrifice a few dozen human sources for a few thousand lives? As for technological means.. most are already understood by foreign governments, the release of information obtained by those means would not compromise anything.
Sure, the inspection personnel are not subject to our intel clearance standards. Some may be funnelling information to the Iraqis or their home governments. But does this make the mission impossible? Some simple modifications to the inspection team structure could easily bypass this. If leaks to the Iraqis continue, if they move materials.. well, we'll just have to work a little harder.
Why are we arguing over U2 overflights when commercial satellites have largely bypassed their technology? The US government already can obtain aerial information without U2 flights, so can many others. Anyway, who needs permission? The Iraqis haven't hit one of our patrol jets in 12 years.. the U2s fly much higher!
What is the reason for not using intelligence to disarm??