Senator: Bush Misled Nation in Run-Up to Iraq War

BY DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A senator is releasing new information he says is evidence the Bush administration misled the nation in the run-up to war in Iraq.

Michigan Democrat Carl Levin is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He says a 2003 CIA cable warns against making references to claims that Mohammad Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Czech Republic before the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks. Atta is the man who led the 9/11 hijackers.

He says Bush officials used the unconfirmed meeting to link Iraq to 9/11 in the public’s mind.

Levin is releasing a letter he received from CIA Director John Brennan who writes that no U.S. counterterrorism or FBI expert has said they have evidence or know that Atta was in Prague.