http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=auxUqPTmsuAs&refer=homePentagon `Undercut' CIA on Pre-War Intelligence, Probe Finds
By Tony Capaccio
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Defense Department officials ``undercut'' the U.S. intelligence community when making a case to White House officials that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had a close relationship with the al-Qaeda terror network, the Pentagon inspector general said in a declassified report.
Analysts reporting to former Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith told then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Lewis Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, that there were ``fundamental problems with how the intelligence community is assessing information,'' the report shows.
The report concludes the Pentagon provided ``inappropriate'' analysis for its finding of a strong link between Hussein and al- Qaeda -- a finding that Vice President Dick Cheney cited as a rationale for invading Iraq along with the need to disarm the nation of weapons of mass destruction.
The criticism of the intelligence community is one of several on a slide used in the Sept. 16, 2002, White House briefing.
``The slide undercuts'' the CIA and other intelligence agencies, Acting Inspector General Thomas Gimble said in a letter to Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who released the report today.