However, Tenet only briefly discussed the al-Qaida threat and devoted the bulk of his testimony on how to deal with the threat of rogue countries such as North Korea, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Six months later, Bin Laden was identified as the mastermind behind 9-11.
Between 1998 and early 2002, the CIA's reports on the so-called terror threat offered no details on what types of chemical and biological weapons that Iraq obtained.
But that changed dramatically in October 2002 when the CIA issued another report that this time included details of Iraq's alleged vast chemical and biological weapons.
The October 2002 CIA report into Iraq's WMD identifies sarin, mustard gas, VX and numerous other chemical weapons that the CIA claims Iraq had been stockpiling over the years, in stark contrast to earlier reports by Tenet that said the agency had no evidence to support such claims. And unlike testimony Tenet gave a year earlier, in which he said the CIA had no direct evidence of Iraq's WMD programs, the intelligence information in the 2002 report, Tenet said, is rock solid.
"This information is based on a solid foundation of intelligence," Tenet said during a CIA briefing in February. "It comes to us from credible and reliable sources. Much of it is corroborated by multiple sources."
The CIA would not comment on the differing reports between 2001 and 2002 or how the agency was able to obtain such intelligence information and corroborate it so quickly.
Still, in early 2001, while hardliners in the Bush administration were privately discussing ways to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Secretary of State Powell said the U.S. successfully "contained" Iraq in the years since the first Gulf War and that because of economic sanctions placed on the country Iraq was unable to obtain WMD.
"We have been able to keep weapons from going into Iraq," Powell said during a Feb 11, 2001 interview with "Face the Nation. "We have been able to keep the sanctions in place to the extent that items that might support weapons of mass destruction development have had some controls on them" it's been quite a success for ten years""
Moreover, during a meeting with Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, in February 2001 on how to deal with Iraq, Powell said the U.N., the U.S. and its allies "have succeeded in containing Saddam Hussein and his ambitions."
Saddam's "forces are about one-third their original size. They don't really possess the capability to attack their neighbors the way they did ten years ago," Powell said during the meeting with Fischer. "Containment has been a successful policy, and I think we should make sure that we continue it until such time as Saddam Hussein comes into compliance with the agreements he made at the end of the (Gulf) war."
Powell added that Iraq is "not threatening America."
Between 1998 and early 2002, the CIA's reports on the so-called terror threat offered no details on what types of chemical and biological weapons that Iraq obtained.
But that changed dramatically in October 2002 when the CIA issued another report that this time included details of Iraq's alleged vast chemical and biological weapons.
The October 2002 CIA report into Iraq's WMD identifies sarin, mustard gas, VX and numerous other chemical weapons that the CIA claims Iraq had been stockpiling over the years, in stark contrast to earlier reports by Tenet that said the agency had no evidence to support such claims. And unlike testimony Tenet gave a year earlier, in which he said the CIA had no direct evidence of Iraq's WMD programs, the intelligence information in the 2002 report, Tenet said, is rock solid.
The CIA would not comment on the differing reports between 2001 and 2002 or how the agency was able to obtain such intelligence information and corroborate it so quickly.
Still, in early 2001, while hardliners in the Bush administration were privately discussing ways to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Secretary of State Powell said the U.S. successfully "contained" Iraq in the years since the first Gulf War and that because of economic sanctions placed on the country Iraq was unable to obtain WMD.
"We have been able to keep weapons from going into Iraq," Powell said during a Feb 11, 2001 interview with "Face the Nation. "We have been able to keep the sanctions in place to the extent that items that might support weapons of mass destruction development have had some controls on them" it's been quite a success for ten years""
Moreover, during a meeting with Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, in February 2001 on how to deal with Iraq, Powell said the U.N., the U.S. and its allies "have succeeded in containing Saddam Hussein and his ambitions."
Saddam's "forces are about one-third their original size. They don't really possess the capability to attack their neighbors the way they did ten years ago," Powell said during the meeting with Fischer. "Containment has been a successful policy, and I think we should make sure that we continue it until such time as Saddam Hussein comes into compliance with the agreements he made at the end of the (Gulf) war."
Powell added that Iraq is "not threatening America."
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