FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 30, 2004	Contact: Press Office Phone: 202.228.3685
Statement of Senator Carl Levin Relating to Public Release of Testimony of Mr. Charles Duelfer DCI's Special Advisor for WMD in Iraq
WASHINGTON -- Following Mr. Charles Duelfer's testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the senior Democrat of the committee, said the following: I am deeply troubled by the contents of the declassified testimony of Mr. Charles Duelfer, the Director of Central Intelligence's Special Advisor for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that has been released by the CIA this afternoon. The public statement, in a number of instances, contains material that, when compared to the contents of the underlying classified status report from Mr. Duelfer that was submitted to the Armed Services Committee for the hearing this morning, includes material that suggests that Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program while leaving out information that would lead one to doubt that it did. I am therefore calling for the CIA to declassify, to the extent possible, the whole report so the public can reach their own conclusions. Mr. Duelfer's public statement is written to express the author's "suspicions" as to Iraq's activities relating to possible weapons of mass destruction programs or activities while leaving out information in the classified report which points away from his suspicions. Mr. Duelfer's statement raises the same issues of selective use of information in public statements of the CIA that have been such a problem for the credibility of the Intelligence Community's pre-war estimates related to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. # # #