CAIRO, November 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A top Al-Qaeda member in US custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before Washington used his statements as the base for its claims that Iraq trained Al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical arms, a leading US daily reported Sunday, November 6.

Citing newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document, the New York Times referred to a February 2002 intelligence that Ibn Al-Shaykh Al-Libi was "intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for Al-Qaedas work with illicit weapons.

"The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libis credibility," said the mass-circulation daily.

It recalled that without mentioning him by name, US President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, and other senior administration officials repeatedly cited Libis information as credible evidence that Iraq was training Al-Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.

It cited Bush as saying in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al-Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases".

The US invaded Iraq under the pretext that the regime was developing weapons of mass destruction.

But after the US invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq, US weapons inspectors found no traces of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons in the oil-rich Arab country.

Senator Levin (D-MI) said the new evidence dramatized the "misuse of pre-war intelligence to try to justify the war in Iraq".

The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, concluded that al-Libi "has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest".

Another portion of the report expressed scepticism about the idea of close collaboration between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

"Saddam's regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic revolutionary movements," the report said in one of two declassified paragraphs.

"Moreover, Baghdad is unlikely to provide assistance to a group it cannot control."

The newly declassified portions of the document were made available by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The new evidence dramatized the Bush administration's "misuse of pre-war intelligence to try to justify the war in Iraq", Levin said.

Libi, who was captured in Pakistan at the end of 2001, recanted his claims in January 2004.

That prompted the CIA a month later to recall all intelligence reports based on his statements, a fact recorded in a footnote to the report issued by the 9/11 commission.

At the time he was the most senior Al-Qaeda member in US custody, and is likely being held at Guantanamo Bay, the Times said.

The New York Times said that Libi was not alone among intelligence sources later determined to have been fabricating accounts.

Among others, an Iraqi exile whose code name was Curveball was the primary source for what proved to be false information about Iraq and mobile biological weapons labs.

American military officials cultivated ties with Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group, who has been accused of feeding the Pentagon misleading information in urging war.

Powell has regretted his UN statement making the case for the US-led Iraq invasion as a "blot" on his record.

In his February 2003 presentation to the UN Security Council, Powell offered "proof" that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction.

His presentation included satellite photos of trucks that the former diplomat identified as mobile bio-weapons laboratories.

On October 28, a federal grand jury dramatically charged top White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby with lying to investigators in a CIA leak probe in an explosive case arising from claims Bush aides "twisted" intelligence to justify the Iraq war.