Snowe says CIA was not pressured to justify Iraq war

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said Friday that CIA analysts were not pressured by superiors to justify the invasion of Iraq, based on a long-awaited Senate Intelligence Committee report on prewar intelligence.

“That’s not the conclusion of the committee report … that was unanimously agreed to by the committee,” Snowe said on NBC’s “Today” show. “In fact, they interviewed a number of analysts, any analyst that would indicate that they were pressured to reach certain conclusions.

“The fact is … that what happened here was a systemic failure throughout the intelligence community,” she said.

Snowe, a member of the intelligence committee, made the comments shortly before the Friday morning release of the 400-page study, which set off a partisan debate over whether the White House strong-armed CIA analysts to make the case for war.

The report concluded that most of the CIA findings used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion – particularly its claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction – were “overstated or not supported by the underlying intelligence.”

Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat and member of the committee, joined Snowe on the “Today” show, where the two sparred over whether the Bush administration pressured the CIA.

“I think it’s … clear that [CIA analysts] were shaping intelligence in order to meet the policy needs of the administration,” Levin said. “There can’t be much doubt about that as an explanation. And what this report also does, of course, is not reach the issue of the administration’s exaggerations once they got the intelligence that they did.”

The report’s release is the first step in a two-step process. A second report concerning the administration’s use – or misuse – of the intelligence is due by the end of the year, but it is not expected before the November election.

During the “Today” interview, however, Snowe said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, has indicated the committee would try for an earlier release.

“Don’t count on that,” Levin said.

Snowe used the report’s release to renew her call for sweeping changes to the intelligence agencies. She urged the creation of a Cabinet-level director of national intelligence to oversee all 15 intelligence agencies and an inspector general for intelligence with the power to investigate the agencies.

Snowe next will appear on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,” at noon Sunday to discuss the report. At 12:30 p.m. the same day she will appear on the Fox News channel’s “Weekend Live.”