New Book Claims White House Ordered CIA to Forge Letter Linking Iraq to 9/11 [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
In a new book, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Ron Suskind [3] charges that in the autumn of 2003, the White House [4] ordered the Central Intelligence Agency [5] (CIA) to forge and back-date a handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi Intelligence to Saddam Hussein [6], to fabricate a link between the Iraqi regime and the September 11, 2001 [7] terrorist attacks on the United States. In the book, The Way of the World, Suskind explains that the letter was to be backdated to July 2001, and say that "9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta [8] had actually trained for his mission in Iraq -- thus showing finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda [9], something the Vice President's Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq." White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto [10] dismissed the charge, saying "Ron Suskind makes a living from gutter journalism. He is about selling books and making wild allegations that no one can verify, including the numerous bipartisan commissions that have reported on pre-war intelligence." Suskind also gave an interview [11] about his book on National Public Radio [12].