The CIA and other US intelligence agencies warned Bush administration policymakers prior to the war against Iraq that the post-war period would pose more problems than the war itself, and that there would be significant resistance to a US-led occupation, The Washington Post reported.
In its Tuesday edition, the Post, citing congressional and administration officials said that the post-war scenarios presented by the CIA and its counterpart agencies in the Pentagon and State Department were more "pessimistic" than top Pentagon officials expressed before the war, but their views generally remained submerged.
"Intelligence reports told them at some length about possibilities for unpleasantness," said a senior administration official.
"The reports were written, but we don't know if they were read," he added.
The post-war threats outlined by the intelligence community included the possibility that the "Iraqis probably would resort to obstruction, resistance and armed opposition if they perceived attempts to keep them dependent on the US and the West," a senior congressional aid said.
The CIA believed that members of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard and his Ba'ath party had plans to carry on resistance efforts after the war, said a high-level intelligence official.
"They had been given instructions should the regime fall," the official added. (Albawaba.com)
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