that prewar intelligence work at the Pentagon, including a contention that the CIA had underplayed the likelihood of an al-Qaida connection, was inappropriate but not illegal
Well of course it wasn’t illegal. Nothing these guys do is illegal. Another action within this administration with no consequences, other than the loss of over 3,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, half a trillion dollars, a civil war in Iraq….but hey, it isn’t illegal!

WASHINGTON — A “very damning” report by the Defense Department’s inspector general depicts a Pentagon that purposely manipulated intelligence in an effort to link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida in the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, says the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to go to war,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. He said the Pentagon’s work, “which was wrong, which was distorted, which was inappropriate … is something which is highly disturbing.”

The investigation by acting inspector general Thomas F. Gimble found that prewar intelligence work at the Pentagon, including a contention that the CIA had underplayed the likelihood of an al-Qaida connection, was inappropriate but not illegal. The report was to be presented to Levin’s panel at a hearing Friday.

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