Levin looks for answers: 02/10/07
By Gordon Trowbridge
Detroit News
WASHINGTON — Michigan’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Carl Levin, said Friday he plans to delve more deeply into the story of how the United States went to war in Iraq, sending staffers to interview key White House and Pentagon officials about how dubious intelligence linking Saddam Hussein to the September 11 terrorist attacks became part of the justification for the 2003 invasion.
The interviews could be a prelude to hearings in which Democrats could publicly question those who led the drive to war.
“They need to be interviewed. They need to be asked some critical questions,” Levin said after a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he chairs, on a report by the Pentagon’s top internal watchdog on efforts to link Iraq and al Qaeda.
That report, from Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble, found that Douglas Feith, a top civilian official under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, had led an office within the Pentagon that developed inaccurate reports and distributed them to officials including the number two official on the National Security Council and the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Those reports later became the source for public comments made by Cheney linking Iraq and al Qaeda. Later investigations by the independent 9/11 Commission and other bodies found no substantial ties between Iraq and the group responsible for the terrorist attacks.
The inspector general’s report found no evidence that Feith acted illegally or without authorization from Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. But the report concluded Feith’s office acted inappropriately by presenting dubious conclusions as definitive without conveying the fact that other intelligence agencies disagreed.
Republicans at the hearing tried to downplay and criticize the report.
“I think not only has Mr. Feith not violated a law as you’ve found, that he acted with authority, but I think he acted appropriately,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.