CIA Abruptly Removes “Leaked Confidential Information” From Website

The CIA abruptly removed from its Web site photos of equipment in relation to nuclear weapons found in Iraq, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

According to the paper, the CIA on Thursday posted on its Web site a statement and six photos of nuclear centrifuge parts that were found under a rosebush in the garden of an Iraqi scientist.

“The discovery of the parts is an illustration of the extreme difficulty of uncovering evidence of Iraq`s weapons of mass destruction,” the CIA argued.

The CIA, however, deleted all the pictures on its website on Friday afternoon leaving only the statement.

“We took them down because some of the departments in the administration showed concern,” the CIA spokesman said, refusing to comment further. Analysts say that the CIA was overly excited of promoting its achievement and, as a result, overlooked the importance of the drawings of the centrifuge, which are used to enrich uranium.

"These documents would be incredibly useful to countries like Iran and North Korea, two countries which are pursuing nuclear development," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and a former UN weapons inspector.

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