WASHINGTON - The Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Intelligence Committee have reached an agreement on how to examine prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
What they haven't agreed on is how to characterize their inquiry.
To Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., the committee is launching an investigation that "will unflinchingly follow the facts wherever they lead."
To Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., it isn't an investigation, but a review that falls under the committee's normal oversight role. He said the committee will not be pressured "into any particular course of action in order to meet arbitrary expectations."
In announcing their plans Thursday, Goss and Harman bridged a gap that has deeply divided their counterparts on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Democrats on the Senate panel have demanded a full investigation because no weapons of mass destruction have been found and some of the evidence cited by the Bush administration has proven to be false or misleading.
But the committee's majority Republicans say there is no evidence of wrongdoing and that routine oversight procedures are sufficient to determine if the intelligence was flawed.
In a joint statement Thursday, Goss and Harman described their plans for a "comprehensive review of questions concerning the quality and objectivity of prewar intelligence relating to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi ties to terrorism."
They said they would hold hearings to allow committee members to question administration officials about weapons intelligence. Hearings would be open "as appropriate."
The first two hearings, though, will be closed. On Wednesday the committee will hear about efforts to locate weapons of mass destruction. On Thursday, it will hear testimony about an October 2002 intelligence review of Iraq's weapons programs.
The inquiry will also include staff interviews of intelligence personnel and regular updates on efforts to locate weapons of mass destruction. The committee has already begun reviewing documents submitted by the CIA on weapons programs.
Democrats have questioned whether intelligence was steered to support the case for war. Questions have also been raised about whether agencies relied too much on exile groups for information about weapons programs.
In the Capitol on Thursday, an Iraqi exile leader told reporters "there was no hyping of information."
Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, said his group had put the U.S. government in contact with three defectors who provided information on Iraqi weapons
One was an engineer "who built sites for the weapons storage areas." He was presented to the U.S. government on Dec. 17, 2001, and entered into the witness protection program, Chalabi said.
The second exile told the United States about mobile biological labs, he said. U.S. officials believe two truck trailers it seized in Iraq were likely those labs. But no traces of biological weapons have been found.
The third exile spoke only briefly to U.S. officials. Chalabi said he was involved in a nuclear weapons program.
In an interview, Secretary of State Colin Powell shrugged off Chalabi's statements. "I can't substantiate his claims. He makes new ones every year," he said.
Chalabi is a former banker who recently returned to Iraq after 45 years abroad.
Supporters credit him with keeping U.S attention on Iraq in the past decade and some U.S. officials see him as a potential future leader of Iraq. Critics have also questioned his credibility, noting that a Jordanian court convicted him in absentia of embezzlement in 1992.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium said on Friday it was taking steps to transfer to Israel a war crimes probe into the role of an Israeli general in the 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Lebanon linked to then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.
A group of Palestinian plaintiffs is using a Belgian law that claims universal jurisdiction, allowing the country's courts to try people for crimes against humanity and genocide no matter where they were committed.
Sharon, now Israeli prime minister, was the main focus of the complaint, but the Belgian Supreme Court of Appeals ruled his investigation could only continue once he is out of office.
A Brussels court earlier this week ruled the complaint against Amos Yaron, which had been disassociated from the now-frozen lawsuit against Sharon, admissible and could proceed.
"The procedure has been started in the case of Yaron," a spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry said.
Lawyers for the Palestinian plaintiffs called the move "unfortunate" and said it was a result of Israeli pressure.
"It is an incontrovertible fact that, despite the clear dispositions of international law, Palestinians living in forced exile since 1948 have never been allowed any access to Israel, let alone any access to justice in Israel," a statement from the lawyers said.
The plaintiffs would continue to pursue justice for the victims of the massacre, said the statement sent to Reuters by Beirut-based lawyer Chibli Mallat.
An Israeli judicial inquiry found in 1983 that Yaron, commander of Israeli forces in Beirut at the time, had shown "insensitivity to the dangers of massacre in the camps" after he received reports of killings there by Lebanese Christian militiamen allied to Israel.
Sharon was defense minister at the time of the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. The Israeli commission found him indirectly responsible for the killings and he resigned, but was never prosecuted.
Yaron was reassigned after the commission's report was issued and held various positions in the Israeli military afterwards. He was named director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry in 1999.
A Belgian government source told Reuters the Justice Ministry had asked the appeals court for a formal advice, which could take up to two weeks, after which the government will have the final say on whether the case will be moved to Israel.
Asked whether the government would approve the transfer, the source said: "That's the objective."
The move should ease fears of a new diplomatic spat between Belgium and Israel. Relations have been strained since the appointment of an examining magistrate in the Sharon case.
A recent amendment allows Belgium to send a lawsuit to the defendant's country if that country has a legal system that guarantees proper handling of the complaint.
The law was changed to stem a flood of complaints against foreign political figures which threatened to clog Belgium's courts and compromise its foreign relations.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vowed on Thursday to block spending on NATO's new Brussels headquarters as long as the law stands.