July 27, 2003

CIA probe finds secret Pentagon group manipulated intelligence on Iraqi threat
The CIA is getting PISSED.

By Jason Leopold of Online Journal: A half-dozen former CIA agents investigating prewar intelligence have found that a secret Pentagon committee, set up by Donald Rumsfeld in October 2001, manipulated reams of intelligence information prepared by the spy agency on the so-called Iraqi threat and then delivered it to top White House officials who used it to win support for a war in Iraq.

The former agents will present a final report on their findings to the Pentagon, the CIA and possibly Congress later this year. More than a dozen calls to the White House, the CIA, the National Security Council and the Pentagon for comment were not returned.

The agents said the Office of Special Plans is responsible for providing the National Security Council and Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice and Rumsfeld with the bulk of the intelligence information on Iraq's weapons program that turned out to be wrong. But White House officials used the information it received from the Office of Special Plans to win support from the public and Congress to start a war in Iraq even though the White House knew much of the information was dubious, the CIA agents said.

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