We Know That You Know

In a ludicrous response to POGO's request for a Mandatory Declassification Review, the CIA has said it "can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence" of the Iraqi weapons declaration on chemical, biological and nuclear programs to the United Nations Security Council required under paragraph 3 of Security Council resolution 1441 delivered by Iraq in December 2002. Yet the CIA already has confirmed the existence of the Iraqi weapons declaration.

In the CIA's "Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 July Through 31 December 2002" the CIA wrote:

On 7 December 2002, Iraq submitted a 12,200-page weapons declaration under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441. In that declaration, Iraq still maintained that it possessed no WMD, including BW or CW. A full assessment or verification of that declaration was not completed by the end of 2002, but much of the declaration was a repeat of previous submissions, and in some instances disagreed with what UNMOVIC already knew.

As POGO wrote in its appeal of the CIA decision (pdf):

Clearly, the CIA can acknowledge whether or not the Iraqi weapons declaration exists, in fact it already has. It is no secret that the Iraqi weapons declaration exists. It is no secret that the CIA knows the Iraqi weapons declaration exists.

Iraq made this declaration in December 2002, to show that it had no weapons of mass destruction. The Administration largely dismissed the declaration in public statements, including a State Department one-page rebuttal titled, "Illustrative Examples of Omissions From the Iraqi Declaration to the United Nations Security Council." No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.

MORE: POGO also received a response from the State Department (pdf) regarding the exact same request. Unlike the CIA, the State Department is processing POGO's request.