Pentagon - U.S. must be prepared to act on 'murky' intelligence

WASHINGTON -- Intelligence about terrorism is inherently murky, and the Pentagon's second-ranking official says the United States must be prepared to act on less-than-perfect information in a world where terror is the main threat.

"If you wait until the terrorism picture is clear, you're going to wait until after something terrible has happened," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"And we went to war, and I believe we are still fighting terrorists and terrorist supporters in Iraq, in a battle that will make this country safer in the future from terrorism."

"Iraq now is the central battle in the war on terrorism," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

In appearances on most of the Sunday talk shows, Wolfowitz similarly linked the U.S.-led invasion and its aftermath with President Bush's war on terror. At the same time, on all the shows, he emphasized that intelligence dealing with terrorists is intrinsically "murky."

On CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he was struck by Wolfowitz's use of the word.

"Boy, it sure didn't sound murky before the war," Levin said. "There were clear connections, we were told, between al-Qaida and Iraq. There was no murkiness, no nuance, no uncertainty about it at all. ... That's the way it was presented to the American people."

The Iraq operation was presented as an example of the Bush policy of pre-emptive attack based on intelligence that showed a threat to U.S. security.

Having it both ways

Wolfowitz did not specifically say the Iraqi campaign was the result of murky intelligence. But he said the congressional investigation report released last week blamed the administration for not discerning, from tidbits of evidence, the terrorist threat that was borne out on Sept. 11, 2001. Critics are trying to have it both ways, he said.

"I believe we are still fighting terrorists and terrorist supporters in Iraq, in a battle that will make this country safer in the future from terrorism," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Wolfowitz said he was unsure whether the recent upsurge in American combat deaths represented a trend or merely a spike triggered by the killing last week of two sons of deposed President Saddam Hussein.

There were 13 deaths in the seven days ending Saturday, in what was one of the bloodiest weeks of the war. Another soldier died Sunday.

"The sacrifices that our troops are making are spectacular. It's difficult conditions, it's dangerous conditions, and it takes a lot of ingenuity to figure out how to do some of these civil military things they're doing," Wolfowitz told Fox.

"But it is a sacrifice that is going to make our children and our grandchildren safer, because the battle to win the peace in Iraq now is the central battle in the war on terrorism, and what these troops are doing -- and they understand the mission -- is something that's going to make our country safer."

He said he does not expect the renewed violence to erode Americans' support of the war effort.

"The reports of deaths are terrible. Any American death is a terrible thing," Wolfowitz said. "But I think the American public understand that when you're fighting a war against terrorists, when you're fighting for the security of this country, that sacrifice is something that you'd have to expect."

Wolfowitz, who just returned from Iraq, said it appears the deaths of Odai and Qusai Hussein last Monday had led to better cooperation from Iraqis in providing intelligence to U.S. personnel.

"What has definitely also taken place, though, is a real increase in the amount of information that we're getting from Iraqis," he said. "This is a war that's going to be won not by smothering the country with individual guard posts; it's going to be won by better and better intelligence, and intelligence was improving even before Monday, and I think it's improved since then."

While he insisted the occupation was going well, Wolfowitz said "I don't want to paint a rosy picture; there are real problems. The security problem is real, and the security problem is making it difficult to solve other problems like getting the power and electricity restored."