White House denies book's forgery claim

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration denied claims in a new book that White House officials ordered the forgery of Iraqi documents to suggest a link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The claim was made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, whose book "The Way of the World" also contends that the White House obtained compelling evidence in early 2003 that Iraq possessed no significant stocks of nuclear or biological weapons but decided to invade the country anyway.

"The notion that the White House directed anyone to forge a letter ... is absurd," said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto.

As the deadline for war neared in 2003, U.S. and British intelligence officials arranged a series of secret meetings with Tahir Jalil Habbush, the former head of intelligence in Saddam Hussein's government, to ask him about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

In those private meetings, Habbush told them U.N. weapons inspectors had been unable to find evidence of active Iraqi WMD programs because there were none.

After the invasion, Habbush was paid $5 million by the CIA for serving as an informant and resettled in Jordan.

Suskind states that, in September 2003, the White House directed then-CIA Director George Tenet to concoct a fake letter, backdated to July 2001 but bearing Habbush's signature, claiming a link between Saddam Hussein's government and Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attack. The administration had long argued that such a link existed but that the CIA had failed to find supporting evidence. Habbush agreed to sign the letter, which was then leaked to a British journalist in December 2003, Suskind writes in the book.

Claims by a captured al-Qaida official of links to Hussein were later determined to be false.

The author quotes two former CIA officials — Robert Richer and John Maguire — as sources for the account. But the two men, in a statement to The Washington Post, disputed Suskind's account that they had been tasked with producing the forgery.

Sunni leader, guards reportedly killed

BAGHDAD — Gunmen killed a senior leader of a U.S.-allied Sunni group and six of his guards in an ambush south of Baghdad, a group member and residents said Tuesday.

The U.S. military confirmed casualties in an attack on the man's house but denied that he was killed.

Sheik Ibrahim al-Karbouli's convoy came under attack Monday in Youssifiyah, according to one of his followers and several residents in the town.

The sheik was a senior leader of the so-called awakening council in the town, which is a former al-Qaida stronghold about 12 miles south of the Iraqi capital.

Al-Qaida has frequently mounted reprisal attacks against awakening councils because of their success in cutting into support for the terror movement among Iraqi Sunni Arabs.

Police also discovered the bodies of three awakening council members who were abducted several days ago, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said.

Deal kept British troops out of battle?

LONDON — A secret deal with an Iran-backed militia kept British forces out of a battle in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, leaving U.S. and Iraqi forces to fight alone, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Ministry of Defense denied any deal was struck and said it held back to ensure that the operation was seen as Iraqi-led.

The pact between Britain and the Mahdi Army was aimed at coercing the Shiite militia back into the political process and marginalizing extremist factions, The Times of London reported, quoting an unidentified senior defense official. But the effect was that 4,000 British soldiers were kept out of action for six days until a deal brokered in Iran ended heavy fighting.

The Times described the deal as an "accommodation," and said that under its terms, no British soldier could enter Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, without the permission of Defense Secretary Des Browne.

In a statement, the defense ministry rejected the story, saying "no 'secret deal' or 'accommodation' kept us out of the city," and that the only reason British involvement was limited was to ensure the operation was perceived by residents of Basra as Iraqi-led.

The British military turned over provincial control of Basra to the Iraqi government in late December despite vicious infighting between Shiite factions and widespread militia infiltration of the local security forces. But British troops remained on standby at their airport base outside the city.

Seattle Times news services