CIA only had "handful" of spies in Iraq

[Kellanved]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The CIA had "less than a handful" of sources in prewar Iraq and could not get access to suspected weapons programs, the departing head of the agency's spy service has said.

"As some critics have claimed, during the pre-war period, we did not have many Iraq sources. We certainly did not have enough," James Pavitt, CIA deputy director for operations, said in a speech to the Foreign Policy Association.

"Until we put people on the ground in northern Iraq, we had less than a handful," said Pavitt on Monday, who has announced plans to retire in August.

He said the CIA was unable to gain access to the "heart of Saddam's weapons programs." But in the months before the war the agency got closer to the political and military inner circles and collected intelligence the U.S. military found vital when it entered Iraq, he said.

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http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=533319§ion=news

[gandalf]

1. Certainly the CIA would never lie about their spies

Maybe this is correct, but basically, why should we believe what an intelligence agency says about its spy operations?

They cannot and won't disclose their intelligence-gathering techniques, sources and operations.