Operating under the command of Rumsfeld, the office was the brainchild of his top deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and directly overseen by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. Together, the top three Pentagon civilians make up the most hawkish, neoconservative wing of the administration. In fact, all three had been calling for Saddam's removal years before the current war on terrorism.

Critics are also somewhat dumbfounded that Rumsfeld, with access to the Defense Intelligence Agency, which already has a reputation for its often alarmist intelligence analysis, felt the need to create yet another, separate, intelligence office. "Nobody ever said we don't have enough resources at the DIA," says Rep. Tauscher.

The premise behind the office seemed to be that career analysts inside the intelligence community, and specifically the CIA, were not grasping the hard realities about Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction, and that a fresh set of eyes examining much of the same information could make critical links.

Wolfowitz told the New York Times last year that there is "a phenomenon in intelligence work that people who are pursuing a certain hypothesis will see certain facts that others won't, and not see other facts that others will."

The current tension over intelligence is simply the resumption of a battle fought during the Cold War when conservatives such as Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith accused the CIA of underestimating the military dangers posed by the Soviet Union. (Following the Soviet Union's collapse, it became clear the CIA had been more accurate in its estimates than the hawks had been.) Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the onset of the war on terrorism, the ideological battle has simply shifted to the Middle East.

Last month Feith held a rare press conference to try to stem the criticism surrounding the office. "This suggestion that we said to them [analysts], 'This is what we're looking for, go find it,' is precisely the inaccuracy that we are here to rebut," he said. "I know of nobody who pressured anybody."

But since that attempted preemptive strike, the questions have only grown louder and more pointed about what the self-described "cabal" at the Pentagon was up to, and why, if its Iraqi leads were solid, it felt the need to end-run the intelligence establishment.

The White House's desire last year to gather damning Iraqi intelligence was driven home by Vice President Dick Cheney, who made three separate, and highly unusual, trips to the CIA before the war where he conferred with analysts and reportedly urged them to dig up better information about Saddam's alleged nuclear weapons program. Cannistraro says the meetings were unprecedented: "The vice president going to the CIA? Cutting ribbons and giving speeches, yes. But sitting down with analysts and going over the intelligence? I've never heard of that." Typically, if members of the executive branch have intelligence queries they contact the National Security staff, which has offices right inside the West Wing.

In retrospect, Cannistraro says it's clear "the decision was made within a couple of months of Sept. 11 to get rid of Saddam Hussein. But the administration had to find rationale to do it. So they set up a secretive group through Feith which started producing information on Iraq that was more compatible than the CIA."

A distinguishing characteristic of the office seemed to be the extraordinary access and influence given to Ahmad Chalabi, the exiled leader of the Iraqi National Congress. A darling of Beltway neocons, Chalabi has been viewed over the years with suspicion by the State Department and the CIA, which recognize the obvious political agenda behind his desire for the U.S. to overthrow Saddam -- he'd be installed as Saddam's successor. The CIA and State Department have also been wary of some of the Iraqi defectors Chalabi produced who allegedly detailed Saddam's deadly arsenal. By contrast, Chalabi reportedly enjoyed unprecedented access at the Pentagon's office. According to some reports, the information and allegations he and his fellow defectors made about Saddam were passed up to Rumsfeld and Bush, with no review by outside intelligence professionals. The information was often shared with the press as well, helping to build a public case for war.

But the trick with dealing with defectors, says Cannistraro, is that "you have to understand how to vet them and what their motivations are. Otherwise they're just going to give you exactly what you want to hear." He says the Office of Special Plans never asked defectors the tough questions. "The level of naiveté was extraordinary."

Meanwhile, Rumsfeld's spy office is also coming under new scrutiny for its questionable job of planning for a postwar Iraq, a country that nearly three months after the toppling of Saddam remains mired in all sorts of political, legal and humanitarian chaos.

Last weekend, Knight-Ridder newspapers reported the Office of Special Plans "dominated planning for postwar Iraq" and yet "failed to prepare for the setbacks that have erupted over the past two months." Further, Knight-Ridder reported, "the Pentagon [civilian] leaders didn't develop extensive plans, the officials said, because they believed that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops with open arms and that Washington could install a favored Iraqi exile as the country's leader. And, when their envisioned scenario collapsed amid violence and disorder, they had no backup plan."

"There is no postwar planning I can see that reveals any level of accomplishment," says Tauscher, who notes the U.S. cost of the war was recently doubled to $4 billion per month.

For now, though, the focus is on the office's role in gathering intelligence on Iraq -- and on the pending congressional survey and investigation request, which needs bipartisan support to move forward. Democrats Obey, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, and Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, ranking member of the defense appropriations subcommittee, have signed on. Now they need Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., the defense subcommittee chairman, and the Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., to do the same.

According to Young's spokesman, S&I requests are "very seldom" denied. And last week the Wall Street Journal reported Lewis would agree to the inquiry, while, according to the Capitol Hill publication Congress Daily, Young indicated he too would support the bipartisan request. But to date, neither man has formally agreed to the inquiry.

"We have a request letter we're negotiating with Republicans," says Lilly, the Democratic staffer on the Appropriations Committee. "We're trying to keep this bipartisan because that's the only way to get to the bottom of this quickly and effectively."

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