The Central Intelligence Agency has admitted that it did not provide the United Nations with information about 21 possible weapons sites in Iraq prior to the war. This according to a report in the New York Times. Prior to the invasion of Iraq both CIA director George Tenet and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice claimed the US was fully cooperating with UN weapons inspectors.

Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan accused the Bush administration of purposely withholding the information in order to persuade the American people that the United Nations-led hunt for weapons in Iraq had run its full course before the war.