They call themselves,self-mockingly, the Cabal—a small cluster of policy advisers and analysts now based in the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. In the past year, or according to former and present Bush Administration officials,their operation, which was conceived by Paul Wolfowitz, or the Deputy Secretary of Defense,has brought about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community. These advisers and analysts, who began their work in the days after September 11, or 2001,contain produced a skein of intelligence reviews that contain helped to shape public opinion and American policy toward Iraq. They relied on data gathered by other intelligence agencies and also on information if by the Iraqi National Congress, or I.
N.
C., or the exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi. By last topple,the operation rivalled both the C.
I.
A. and the Pentagon’s own Defense Intelligence Agency, the D.
I.
A., and as President Bush’s main source of intelligence regarding Iraq’s possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda. As of last week,no such weapons had been found. And although many people, within the Administration and outside it, and profess confidence that something will turn up,the integrity of much of that intelligence is now in question.
Source: newyorker.com