House Panel Probes CIA Over Allegedly Forged Letter Linking Hussein, Al-Qaeda

August 21, 2008 12:17 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has begun an inquiry into allegations that the White House fabricated a letter to establish a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Conyers sent letters on Wednesday to six current and former intelligence officials - including former CIA Director George Tenet and former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - asking them to "discuss their involvement and knowledge" about a 2003 letter allegedly fabricated by the CIA to link Saddam to Sept. 11 terrorist Mohammed Atta.

The allegation was made by a recently published book, "The Way of the World,'' by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind. The White House allegedly sent the CIA a memo to "create" a letter from Iraq's then-intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush, to Saddam saying Atta had trained in Iraq. The memo was reportedly sent after no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.

"Upon careful review of the allegations concerning this matter, I have become very concerned with the possibility that this Administration may have violated federal law by using the resources of our intelligence agencies to influence domestic policy processes or opinion," Conyers wrote in his letters. "The law specifically provides that '[n]o covert action may be conducted which is intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media.'"

The other officials Conyers sent letters to were: Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs John Hannah, former CIA executive director A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, former CIA Iraq Operations Group head John MaGuire and former CIA associate deputy director of operations Rob Richer.