MB Civic

Headlines from Democracy Now

Book: White House Ordered CIA to Forge Iraq Intelligence

The White House ordered the CIA in 2003 to forge a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein in an attempt to portray a false link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. The fake letter was backdated July 1, 2001, and it stated that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta was trained for his mission in Iraq. Those are the claims of the explosive new book, The Way of the World, by journalist Ron Suskind. He reports the Bush administration then used the forged letter to show there was an operational link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing the CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. On NBC’s The Today Show, Suskind said then-CIA Director George Tenet received orders directly from the White House to forge the letter.

Ron Suskind: “Well, the CIA folks involved in the book and others talk about George coming back—Tenet—coming back from the White House with the assignment on White House stationary and turning to the CIA operatives, who are professionals, saying, ‘You may not like this, but here is our next mission.’ And they carried it through, step by step, all the way to the finish. Ultimately, people even talked about it after the fact. It was a dark day for the CIA. It was the kind of thing where they said, ‘Look, this is not our charge. We’re not here to carry forward a political mandate,’ which is clearly what this was, to solve a political problem in America. And it was a cause of great grievance inside of the agency.”

According to Ron Suskind, the CIA’s forged letter was passed on to Con Coughlin, a reporter from the London Sunday Telegraph, who wrote a front-page article titled “Terrorist Behind September 11 Strike Was Trained by Saddam.” The story was published on Dec. 14, 2003, the same day Saddam Hussein was captured. Coughlin’s article was picked up in the US media, and he was interviewed on NBC’s Meet the Press. Suskind reports the CIA forgery was likely produced in violation of statutes that bar the agency from conducting covert operations intended to influence US public opinion or the media. The White House described Suskind’s report as absurd and accused Suskind of engaging in “gutter journalism.”

Daschle Questions FBI Anthrax Probe

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said he is very skeptical of the government’s anthrax investigation. Daschle was an intended recipient of one of the anthrax-laced letters in 2001. FBI officials said they are considering closing the investigation following the apparent suicide of Army researcher Bruce Ivins, who had become the prime suspect. Tom Daschle appeared on CNN on Monday.

Tom Daschle: “I’m not satisfied, in part because I think they haven’t been as forthcoming, not only with me, but with the American people, about the status of this investigation. I also haven’t seen the evidence, and I think that, given their checkered past and the difficulty that they had in getting to this point, the bungling of the Hatfill part of the investigation, leads me to be very skeptical.”