Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, the secretary of state, could hardly be counted a friend of the White House. In a blistering address at a Washington think-tank last month he charged that a small "cabal" led by Vice-President Dick Cheney had hijacked US foreign policymaking and led the US to a disastrous war in Iraq.

But Col Wilkerson gave an unlikely defence of the administration in one area: its handling of the intelligence on Iraq's alleged efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. While Democrats in recent days have escalated charges that the administration manipulated intelligence to win public support for the war, Col Wilkerson said "the consensus of the intelligence community was overwhelming".