Pentagon Probe Finds Intelligence Inappropriate
Associated Press
February 8, 2007
WASHINGTON - A Defense Department investigation to be presented to Congress on Friday concludes that some of the Pentagon's pre-Iraq War intelligence work was inappropriate but not illegal.
Two people familiar with the findings discussed the main points and some details Thursday on condition they not be identified.
In the report, the department's inspector general said former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith had not engaged in illegal activities through the creation of special offices to review intelligence. Some Democrats also have contended that Mr. Feith misled Congress about the basis of the administration's assertions on the threat posed by Iraq, but the Pentagon investigation did not support that.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing Friday to receive the findings by Thomas F. Gimble, the Pentagon's acting inspector general. The committee's chairman, Carl Levin (D., Mich.), has been a leading critic of Mr. Feith's role in prewar intelligence activities and has accused him of deceiving Congress.
Mr. Levin has asserted that President Bush took the country to war in Iraq based in part on intelligence assessments -- some shaped by Mr. Feith's office -- that were off base and didn't fully reflect the views of the intelligence community.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Mr. Levin said the inspector-general report is "very damning" and shows a Pentagon policy shop trying to shape intelligence to prove a link between al Qaeda and Saddam. Mr. Levin also said it was a "red herring" to say that he or others in Congress claimed that any of Mr. Feith's activities had been illegal. Mr. Feith has said the accusation that he misled Congress was, by definition, a claim that he had acted illegally.
The 2004 report from the Sept. 11 Commission found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror organization before the U.S. invasion.
Asked to comment on the inspector general's findings, Mr. Feith said in a telephone interview that he had not seen the report but was pleased to hear that it concluded his office's activities were neither illegal nor unauthorized. He took strong issue, however, with the inspector general's finding that some activities had been "inappropriate."
Mr. Feith called "bizarre" the inspector general's conclusion that some intelligence activities by the Office of Special Plans, which was created while Mr. Feith served as the undersecretary of defense for policy -- the top policy position under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- were inappropriate but not unauthorized.
Mr. Feith left his Pentagon post in August 2005 and now teaches at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Copyright © 2007 Associated Press
Thank you CutePuppy for the ping.
A good morning to you.
Is there a thread on just this report you posted?
If the Democrat House members read that the report finds that nothing illegal was done in the run up to the Iraq War, they may not even bother reading what's being made available. What they really want is fodder for an impeachment.