and I see Carl Ford's name also. A little background for the current Bolton battle. I have several NYT's that I've saved and have been clipping articles from to create my own little tickler files. Sometimes the benefits of letting them sit for a while before I go through them becomes evident. I would have just skipped over this article at the time of its publication. But now it seems quite significant.
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/2524.htmlIn Stricter Study, U.S. Scales Back Claim on Cuba Arms
New York Times
September 18, 2004
Steven R. Weisman
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 - The Bush administration, using stringent standards adopted after the failure to find banned weapons in Iraq, has conducted a new assessment of Cuba's biological weapons capacity and concluded that it is no longer clear that Cuba has an active, offensive bio-weapons program, according to administration officials.
The latest assessment contradicts a 1999 National Intelligence Estimate and past statements by top administration officials, some of whom have warned that Cuba may be sharing its weapons capacity with "rogue states" or with terrorists.
It is the latest indication that in the wake of the Iraq intelligence failures, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies are taking a closer look at earlier threat assessments and finding fault with some of the conclusions and the way the reports were prepared.
The new assessment says the intelligence community "continues to believe that Cuba has the technical capability to pursue some aspects of an offensive biological weapons program," according to an intelligence official.
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The above link stops several paragraphs from the end. If you have NYT access, here's a link to the full article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/18/international/americas/18intel.html?ex=1253160000&en=4f309b0155978dbc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt