Bush turned down chances to kill Zarqawi: ex-CIA spy

Bush turned down chances to kill Zarqawi: ex-CIA spy
7:55 AM May 1

A former top CIA spy says the United States deliberately turned down several opportunities to kill terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

Mike Scheuer headed the CIA's bin Laden unit for six years before resigning in 2004.

He has told the ABC's Four Corners program the Bush administration had Zarqawi in its sights almost every day for a year.

He says a plan to destroy Zarqawi's training camp in Kurdistan was abandoned for diplomatic reasons.

"The reasons the intelligence service got for not shooting Zarqawi was simply that the President and the National Security Council decided it was more important not to give the Europeans the impression we were gunslingers," he said.

"Mr Bush had Mr Zarqawi in his sights for almost every day for a year before the invasion of Iraq and he didn't shoot because they were wining and dining the French in an effort to get them to assist us in the invasion of Iraq."

The full story will air on Four Corners tonight on Australian Broadcasting Corporation(A.B.C) television.

Planning defended
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has defended the Bush administration's Iraq war planning after her predecessor, Colin Powell, said he had made a case to send more troops to deal with the war's aftermath.

Ms Rice also says she does not "specifically remember" what instance Mr Powell was referring to on his recommending to President George W Bush that more troops be sent.

In an interview with a private British television station on Sunday (local time), Mr Powell said there had been debates about the size of the force and how to deal with the aftermath.

"I don't think we had enough force there to impose order," he said on ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby program.

"The aftermath turned out to be much more difficult than anyone had anticipated.

"I made the case to General (Tommy) Franks, to (Defence) Secretary (Donald) Rumsfeld and to the president that I was not sure we had enough troops."

But Mr Powell said the military leaders felt they had the appropriate number.

Ms Rice, appearing on several Sunday talk shows, was responding to Mr Powell's comments that fanned the controversy over the administration's plans for the invasion's immediate aftermath.

Critics say violence and looting set the stage for a bloody insurgency and sectarian killings over the last three years.

Asked on CNN's Late Edition if she remembered Mr Powell's dissent, Ms Rice said, "I don't remember specifically what Secretary Powell may be referring to, but I'm quite certain that there were lots of discussions about how best to fulfil the mission when we went into Iraq."

She said Mr Bush relied on his military advisers, and that he "asked time and time again" whether everything needed to execute the plan was available, "and he was told 'yes'."