Former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich charged yesterday that the Bush administration has gone “off a cliff” in dealing with postwar Iraq. Gingrich claimed the White House had failed to put Iraqis at the center of the reconstruction and said “the White House has to get a grip on this.” Meanwhile Senator Hillary Clinton blamed the White House for “miscalculation” and “inept planning” in Iraq. She added that more troops are likely needed in Iraq.

• Memo Reveals INC Fed Cheney Iraq Intel* Newsweek has obtained an internal memo from the Iraqi National Congress to Dick Cheney’s office that suggests Ahmed Chalabi’s organization directly fed raw intelligence reports about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction to Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Although the CIA was skeptical over the reliability of the reports, Cheney went on to use this intelligence to make the case for war. Cheney has long denied he bypassed the CIA by getting intelligence directly from the INC. The memo was written by an INC lobbyist. It was sent to Cheney’s senior national security aide, John Hannah and to William Luti of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans