MYTH #2 - OSP INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION
Did the Office of Special Plans within the Pentagon's Policy organization collect its own intelligence, operating outside normal intelligence channels?

FACTS:
Neither the Office of Special Plans nor any other part of the Pentagon's Policy organization collected intelligence. We were consumers of intelligence, not producers.

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) asked the Defense Department's Inspector General about this question, in a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee:

CHAMBLISS: Did the Office of Special Planning at the Department of Defense gather any intelligence?

GIMBLE: They had access to intelligence databases...

CHAMBLISS: Did they gather any intelligence?

GIMBLE: You mean like in a...

CHAMBLISS: Mr. Gimble, did they gather any intelligence? It's a simple question.

GIMBLE: No, they did not go out and do first-source gathering.

CHAMBLISS: So they did not gather intelligence. They analyzed intelligence that had been gathered by the CIA, the DIA, our intelligence community.

CHAMBLISS: Is that correct?

GIMBLE: That's correct. ¹