Secretive Pentagon Office (Office of Special Plans) Target of FBI Probe

An unorthodox Pentagon outfit responsible for much of the Bush administration's discredited intelligence on Iraq is the target of a broad FBI national security probe, sources told the New York Daily News Wednesday.

The secretive Office of Special Plans and a related project are being investigated over how they obtained top-secret intelligence and whom they shared it with, according to four federal sources.

"It involves the improper transfer of information," said one source briefed on the case. "A lot more is going to come out."

The Office of Special Plans was overseen by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, the Pentagon's No. 3 and a close aide to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Feith's team has been blamed by Democratic lawmakers and others for sexing up uncorroborated intelligence on Iraq's arsenal from Iraqi dissident Ahmed Chalabi and other sources, including a bogus informant code-named "Curveball."

The Senate Intelligence Committee is examining those charges.

The office also sought to establish links between Iraqi deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida after Sept. 11.

Many details of the FBI case are still fuzzy. It came to light after the disclosure last week that agents stumbled on a possible spy case involving a Feith aide.

Larry Franklin, a Pentagon Iran analyst, allegedly was caught on tape by the FBI offering classified information to officials of a pro-Israeli lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

JAMES GORDON MEEK

New York Daily News