kick-Senator: Pentagon massaged Iraq data

[steve2470]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/21/congress.intelligence.dc.reut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A Democratic U.S. Senator on Thursday accused a senior Pentagon official of distorting intelligence information to back claims of links between Iraq and al Qaeda before last year's U.S.-led invasion.

A report issued by Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, questioned assertions of pre-war links between Baghdad and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Since the invasion, al-Zarqawi has emerged as a leader in the anti-U.S. insurgency.

The report, compiled by the committee's Democratic staff, criticized the Office of Special Plans, which operated under the auspices of Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy.<snip>