July 18, 2003 New Warning Was Put Off on Weapons Syria Plans By DOUGLAS JEHL, NYTimes WASHINGTON, July 17 — The Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies blocked a Bush administration plan to deliver sharp new warnings this week about Syria's efforts to develop unconventional weapons, according to United States government officials. The C.I.A. and the other agencies raised strong objections to testimony that John R. Bolton, an under secretary of state, had planned to present to Congress on Tuesday. The hearing was postponed, and Congressional officials and other government officials said one reason was the dispute over Mr. Bolton's plan to say in a classified portion of his testimony that Syria's development of chemical and biological weapons had progressed to the point that they posed a threat to stability in the Middle East. The dispute is the latest between intelligence agencies and the Bush administration over issues involving unconventional weapons. Government officials said they had no doubt that the separate controversy surrounding President Bush's use of disputed intelligence about Iraq's suspected nuclear weapons program had caused the intelligence agencies to be particularly rigorous in scrutinizing the testimony that Mr. Bolton had prepared about Syria. A call to Mr. Bolton's office was referred to the State Department press office. A spokeswoman, Brooke Summers, said Mr. Bolton's testimony had been postponed because he "had to attend a White House meeting at the time that he was scheduled to attend the subcommittee meeting." She said the hearing was likely to be rescheduled to September. Another State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Bolton had decided to postpone his testimony, not just because of the White House meeting but because there was not time to resolve the interagency disagreements over his draft statement. A C.I.A. spokesman, Bill Harlow, declined to comment on his agency's role in the matter. The C.I.A.'s objections to the testimony, first reported today by Knight Ridder newspapers, were informally spelled out in a memorandum that exceeded 35 pages, one government official said. A second government official said the assertions spelled out in Mr. Bolton's prepared testimony went well beyond what the United States had previously said about Syria's weapons programs. The official said the extent of objections from the intelligence agencies meant that "there wasn't time to move it along." Mr. Bolton, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, ran into controversy in May 2002 when he delivered a speech saying that Cuba had a biological weapons program. A State Department intelligence official, Christian Westermann, recently told the House and Senate intelligence committees that the conclusion was not supported by available intelligence data, Congressional officials have said. In the last year, Mr. Bolton has been among the administration officials who have been most publicly critical of Syria, identifying the Damascus government as being among those whose pursuit of chemical and biological weapons made them international threats. His statements have described those weapons program as a more significant problem than did a declassified American intelligence assessment that covered the first six months of 2002. In testimony last month before the House International Relations Committee, Mr. Bolton offered a considerably darker view of Syria's weapons program than the C.I.A. had in a report to Congress two months earlier. For example, Mr. Bolton said in June that American officials were "looking at Syria's nuclear program with growing concern and continue to monitor it for any signs of nuclear weapons intent." The C.I.A. report to Congress in April said only: "In principle, broader access to Russian expertise provides opportunities for Syria to expand its indigenous capabilities, should it decide to pursue nuclear weapons." In June, Mr. Bolton also said that American officials "know that Syria is pursuing the development of biological weapons." The C.I.A. report in April, using an abbreviation, said only that it was "highly probable that Syria is also continuing to develop an offensive BW capability."
