Spy feuds raise heat in capital

It was the CIA itself that requested the Justice Department to look into this matter, and the CIA rank-and-file remain furious over the incident.

Thus the investigation into the matter may now represent the revenge of intelligence analysts who felt the administration hyped the danger posed by Saddam Hussein's regime before the war.

"That is what this [dispute] is all about - the politicization of intelligence," says Stanley Bedlington, a former senior analyst in the CIA's counterterrorism center.