a Pentagon that purposely manipulated intelligence

Larisa at Raw:

Contrary to speculation and some earlier reports, the Department of Defense Inspector General's office did not exonerate the controversial Office of Special Plans, which has been accused of cooking pre-war intelligence on Iraq, nor did it exonerate its-then chief overseer, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

According to a statement released by Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) Thursday night to RAW STORY, the IG's report is a "devastating condemnation of the activities of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy." In a separate statement, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, states that whether the intelligence activities "were authorized or not, it appears that they were not in compliance with the law."

Levin called the report "very damning" in a Friday AP review, saying it 'depicts a Pentagon that purposely manipulated intelligence in an effort to link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda in the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.'

Citing excerpts from the IG's unclassified executive summary of the classified report, Levin's statement shows that Feith is not alone to share the blame for creating a parallel intelligence channel that the IG describes as "inappropriately performing Intelligence Activities of developing, producing, and disseminating that should be performed by the Intelligence Community."

Pointing the finger higher up and directly at former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his then Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, the IG concluded, according to Levin's statement, that Feith's "inappropriate activities were authorized by the Secretary of Defense or the Deputy Secretary of Defense."