Pentagon denies distorting intelligence

US officials say there are inaccuracies that need rebutting

The Pentagon has strongly denied suggestions that it slanted intelligence findings to support a view that Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat to US interests.

The move came as the US Congress ordered an investigation into possible abuse of intelligence information in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

In Britain there is an increasingly bitter political dispute with accusations that the government manipulated intelligence reports to justify going to war.

A parliamentary committee is to investigate the allegations, which Prime Minister Tony Blair says are "completely and totally untrue".

In Washington, Under-Secretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith told a news briefing he wanted to put an end to certain stories that were "beginning to achieve the status of urban legends".

WERE WE MISLED OVER WMD?

I supported the war, with or without the discovery of WMD, but if there are questions of deception then there must be an inquiry - democracies must remain open

Shawn Hampton, Oregon, US

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He referred to reports in the US media that a small group of defence department officials working outside normal intelligence circles were directed in 2001 to find evidence of connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda and weapons of mass destruction.

"This suggestion that we said to them, 'This is what we're looking for, go find it', is precisely the inaccuracy that we are here to rebut," Mr Feith said.

He told reporters people had misconstrued the purpose of the group and the result of its work, which he said began after the 11 September terrorist attacks and ended in August 2002.

'No pressure'

Although the group concluded that there were links between the Iraqi Government and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, this was "incidental" to its main effort, Mr Feith said.

He denied that Pentagon officials pressured the CIA or any other US intelligence agency to slant findings to conform to the view of Iraq menacing the world with its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

US officials had cited Iraq's alleged possession of stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and a programme to develop nuclear weapons, as justification for the Iraqi war but no such weapons have been found.

"The main thing that the team produced was, it helped educate a lot of people about the fact that there was more co-operation and interconnections among these terrorist organisations and state sponsors, across ideological lines, than many people had appreciated before," he added.

Mr Feith said the group's work helped the Pentagon fashion a strategy for fighting a global war on terrorism.