Pentagon tailored Iraq intel, panel hears

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The Pentagon's inspector general told a Senate committee Friday the U.S. Defense Department tailored intelligence findings on Iraq to the audience.

Discussion of the report on the Senate Armed Services Committee divided along partisan lines, The New York Times reported. The chairman, Carl Levin, D-Mich., called it a "devastating condemnation" of the misuse of intelligence as the Bush administration tried to justify its plans to invade Iraq.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, pressed Thomas Gimble, the acting inspector general, on whether he agreed with Levin. Gimble refused to characterize the report and said that he had found no evidence of illegal activity by former Undersecretary Douglas Feith.

But Gimble had little comfort for Republicans.

"The actions, in our opinion, were inappropriate, given that all the products did not clearly show the variance with the consensus of the intel community, and in some cases were shown as intel products," he said.

Gimble also said that Feith made "adjustments" in his findings, depending on the audience.

Feith, in an interview with National Public Radio, said that his office was not producing intelligence but was trying to point out problems with CIA findings.