Re "Ex-official defends claim on Iraq, Al Qaeda," Feb. 12
Your article correctly quotes me as noting that my Pentagon office never said there was an operational relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It then quotes a blogger attacking that statement as a lie. The blogger cites an Oct. 27, 2003, classified memo that became the subject of media stories, but that memo did not say that Iraq and Al Qaeda had an operational relationship. My statement was correct. I defy anyone to find anything I ever said to the contrary in public or private, in unclassified or in classified form.

