Pentagon 'insisted Saddam linked to al-Qaida'

Pentagon officials undercut the intelligence community in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq by insisting in briefings to the White House that there was a clear relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Defence Department’s internal watchdog said today.

Acting Inspector General Thomas Gimble told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the office headed by former Pentagon policy chief Douglas Feith took “inappropriate” actions in advancing conclusions on al-Qaida connections not backed up by the nation’s intelligence agencies.

Gimble said that while the actions of the Office of the under Secretary of defence for policy “were not illegal or unauthorised,” they “did not provide the most accurate analysis of intelligence to senior decision makers” at a time when the White House was moving toward war with Iraq.

“I can’t think of a more devastating commentary,” said Armed Services Committee Chairman Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat.