Senator Says Pentagon Unit Hyped Terror Tie
by Bryan Bender
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1022-02.htm WASHINGTON -- A small Pentagon unit set up after Sept. 11, 2001, to review raw intelligence later exaggerated the relationship between Al Qaeda and Iraq, leading White House officials to make overblown or inaccurate comments in the run-up to the Iraq war, according to the Democratic staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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The staff's report, based on a 15-month investigation and released yesterday by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's top Democrat, accused the office of Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith of compiling "selective reinterpretations of intelligence" that went beyond the views of American spy agencies in order to help make the case for an invasion of Iraq.
The 46-page report concluded that Feith and his staff were convinced that a significant relationship existed between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and that the office had advanced that perspective by trying to change the intelligence community's views and "by taking its interpretation straight to policymakers."
In response, the Defense Department cited other investigations by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 commission that have found relationships did exist between Al Qaeda and the former government of Iraq. The department said in a statement it has cooperated with the Senate investigation, but did not directly address the allegations.
Levin said he is still seeking documents from the Pentagon, including those related to intelligence that may have been provided by Iraqi exile groups. Feith declined to comment on the report.
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