CIA Denies Forged Iraq Letter

Two former CIA officers denied that they or the spy agency faked an Iraqi intelligence document purporting to link Saddam Hussein with 9/11 bomber Mohammed Atta. The White House issued the statement on behalf of the former officials after a day of adamant denials from the CIA and Bush administration about the claim, made in a new book by journalist Ron Suskind. Suskind claims the White House concocted the fake letter, meant to come from Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, director of Iraqi intelligence under Saddam, in the fall of 2003 to bolster its case for the invasion earlier that year as it was becoming clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq.