type: timeline_event
The Office of Special Plans (OSP), under Douglas Feith's leadership, systematically fabricated intelligence reports claiming non-existent operational connections between Iraq and Al-Qaeda. These fabricated assessments, contradicting CIA and FBI intelligence, were intentionally distributed to the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) to manipulate public and political support for the Iraq War. A 2007 Pentagon Inspector General report later confirmed these assessments were 'inappropriate' and inconsistent with established intelligence community consensus, revealing a deliberate strategy of intelligence manipulation to justify military intervention.