WASHINGTON, July 16 (AFP) - The CIA's acting director on Friday defended the intelligence agency's performance, assuring its employees in a speech that it pulled no punches in its pre-war reporting on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism.
It was the latest in a blitz of appearances by John McLaughlin aimed at blunting the impact of a Senate Intelligence Committee report that found pre-war estimates of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were overstated or unfounded.
McLaughlin urged CIA employees to stay focused on their work and let the agency's leaders "deal with the controversy and the noise outside our gates."
"Some of our judgments on Iraqs WMD programs, while reasonable at the time, were flawed. There is no way around that," he acknowledged.
"But one thing I won't accept from anyone is the suggestion that we somehow pulled our punches, or distorted the evidence, on Iraq. It simply isnt true," he said.
McLaughlin noted that the Senate report gave the CIA credit for its assessment playing down Iraq's links to al-Qaeda -- "a subject of enormous contention."
"In short, our people made the hard calls as they saw them. Some were right. Some were wrong. But each was made honestly. We went where the evidence took us," he said.
McLaughlin, who spoke to employees assembled in an auditorium at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, became acting director of the CIA after George Tenet stepped down last week after seven years at the helm.
"I cannot tell you -- because I don't actually know -- when the President will nominate a permanent CIA Director or who that person will be," McLauglin said.
Leaders in both parties urged President George W. Bush in the wake of the Senate report to name a new director quickly to bring about needed reform.