In a rare move, the US Senate held a closed session Tuesday under the request of Democrats who demanded a congressional probe into the intelligence which led to the Iraq war.

Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid prompted the Senate to have the closed session, in which all outsiders are kept out with lights dimmed and doors closed.

The move acted as a fresh reminder of the ongoing controversy over intelligence that the Bush administration cited in the run-up to the war in Iraq in 2003.

Despite prewar claims, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and some Democrats have accused the administration of manipulating the information that was in their possession.

In a related development, US Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last week in the case of exposing the identity of a CIA official married to a critic of the administration's Iraq policy.

Reid said the Libby indictment provided a window into how the Bush administration manipulated intelligence in order to justify the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions.

Democrats said that the unmasking of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame, was meant to punish her husband, Joseph Wilson, who publicly challenged the Bush administration's assertion that Iraq had been seeking to purchase uranium from Africa.

That claim was part of the White House's justification for going to war.

Source: Xinhua