White House Forged Letter to Start Iraq War?

In an explosive new claim, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Ron Suskind details how the White House directed the CIA to forge and leak a letter to help buttress its case for invading Iraq. The letter, which found its way into the hands of a reporter from London's Sunday Telegraph, seemed to show proof that the 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammad Atta, had received training from Saddam Hussein's government.

The problem is, according to Suskind, the letter was a fake, and no such training took place. The White House adamantly denies the charges made in "The Way of the World," which was released today. Other revelations from the book?

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official "that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq--intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion."

While accusations of this magnitude should always be met with skepticism, one only needs to look back to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident to realize that such tactics of deception have been employed before to start a war. In fact, as Seymour Hersh recently uncovered, the Bush Administration was planning similar smoke-and-mirrors options for Iran.

And what if what Suskind claims is true?

The author claims that such an operation, part of "false pretenses" for war, would constitute illegal White House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable offense.

Given the duration remaining on the Bush's Last Day clock, that option seems unlikely.