A former CIA director has accused the administration of President George W Bush of “overstretching the facts” about Iraq’s weapons program in order to justify a war on Iraq.

Stansfield Turner, who headed the CIA under President Carter, said, “There is no question in my mind (that policymakers) distorted the situation, either because they had bad intelligence or because they misinterpreted it.”

Yesterday the House and Senate intelligence committees began closed-door hearings on the intelligence that provided the basis for the U.S.-led attack on Iraq.

Senator John Kerry said of President Bush, “He misled every one of us.”