By Jonathan S. Landay and Tish Wells
Knight Ridder
WASHINGTON - The former Iraqi exile group that gave the Bush administration exaggerated and fabricated intelligence on Iraq also fed much of the same information to newspapers, news agencies and magazines in the United States, Britain and Australia.

A June 26, 2002, letter from the Iraqi National Congress to the Senate Appropriations Committee listed 108 articles based on information provided by the Iraqi National Congress's Information Collection Program, a U.S.-funded effort to collect intelligence in Iraq.

The Mercury News published three of the 108 stories cited by the Iraqi National Congress in a letter to Congress. The INC said the stories were based on information it provided to media outlets -- and much of that information has been found to be fabricated or exaggerated.

"We would not have published these stories had we known they were based on faulty information provided by the Iraqi National Congress," said Mercury News Executive Editor Susan Goldberg. "We want our readers to know about this situation."

Here are the three stories:

Headline: "Defectors: Iraqi terror camp targeted; U.S. trainees reportedly learned hijacking; site had biological agents"
Date Nov. 8, 2001, Page 5A, by the New York Times
Synopsis:Two Iraqi degectors tell of a training camp for Islamist terrorists south of Baghdad and also claim that Iraqi scientists there produced biological weapons.

Headline: "Mystery shrouds Atta meeting with Iraqi spy"
Date Dec. 16, 2001, Page 24A, by the New York Times
Synopsis: Several former Iraqi intelligence officers claim a top Iraqi spy, masquerading as a diplomat, met in Prague with Mohamed Atta, the apparent ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Headline: "Evidence of Iraqi weapons: Defector says chemical , nuclear labs functioning in secret"
Date Dec. 20, 2001, Page 22A, by the New York Times
Synopsis: An Iraqi defector said he worked on renovations of secret facilities for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in wells, villas, and a hospital in Baghdad.