CIA Director George Tenet admitted yesterday that he warned senior administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, that they were overstating the threat posed by Iraq. As recently as January, Tenet privately told Cheney that he was wrong to state that two truck trailers recovered in Iraq were “conclusive evidence” that Saddam had a biological weapons program. Tenet told the Senate Armed Forces Committee: “When I believed that somebody was misconstruing intelligence, I said something about it. I don’t stand up publicly and do it.” Tenet also said he planned to warn Cheney again for citing a leaked Pentagon top-secret memorandum that was never cleared by the CIA that linked Saddam Hussein to Osama Bin Laden. Tenet also said he was never told that a special intelligence unit at the Pentagon privately briefed senior officials at the White House on alleged ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. According to the Los Angeles Times, the disclosure suggests that the controversial Pentagon office played a greater role than previously understood in shaping the administration’s views on Iraq by bypassing usual channels to make a case that conflicted with the conclusions of CIA analysts. The office known as the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group was created by Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of Defense for policy, after Sept. 11 2001.