WP: Intelligence Probe ("phase two" committee of six) Takes Shape

[DeepModem Mom]

Intelligence Probe Takes Shape
Senators Discuss Inquiry Into Administration Statements About Iraq
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 10, 2005; Page A07


The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday worked out a tentative arrangement for pursuing its inquiry into how the Bush administration publicly portrayed the intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, with Democrats saying they expected some officials to be called to testify before the review is completed.

"There is a new resolution of the way we are going," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said yesterday after the committee met in closed session for 90 minutes. Feinstein is one of six committee members charged with resolving differences over how to proceed with the "phase two" inquiry....

***

The most contentious part of the second phase -- comparing public officials' prewar statements to the intelligence available at the time -- has for now been turned over to the committee staff for additional work. The staff has been directed to collect major statements about Iraq's weapons programs by administration officials and members of Congress, as well as any relevant intelligence circulating at the time, whether it supported or undercut the statements, officials said.

"We want to look at all the intelligence community work and see how it was used," Feinstein said. Under the original plan of Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the process was to have been simpler: Statements were to be analyzed to see only if there was intelligence that substantiated them, without looking at contrary intelligence.

One example of the work ahead, Feinstein said, would be analyzing President Bush's statement in his 2003 State of the Union address saying the British government had learned that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/09/AR2005110902203.html

[Rose Siding]

1. That looks like a win, but Roberts' request for a DoD probe of Feith

can really jam them up. It could tie their hands in this committee for up to a year, according to Rockefeller.

[pushycat]

2. What is the strategy to avoid the effects of this stall tactic?

You'd think Rockefeller might be prepared for such an attempt to derail him AGAIN. If he is already voicing Roberts' next move for him, does this mean Roberts wins another point and the public is again denied a real work product ?

[creeksneakers2]

3. I'm outraged!

"SOME" people might be called to testify? They all ought to testify.

Why the hell are they looking at statements of members of Congress? The Democrats were asked to support the war and viciously attacked if they didn't. Who should take the blame, the people who gave the orders or the people who took them? I don't see why Republicans should be allowed to get away with finger pointing when the focus should be on them.

Secret hearings? So the public won't find out the truth for years, if ever!

Look at what else QQ

They are going to decide by looking at intelligence and see how it matches up with selected statements. That means they are going to ignore how the majority of information didn't come from the intelligence community at all. They aren't going to look at who lied, especially W. In the end, they'll call it all cherry picking at the worst.

The Democrats should start with the premises that everybody knew the prewar intelligence was faulty, and Bush must have known too. Make Bush explain why he didn't question it more. Make them say whether Colin Powell or Larry Wilkerson told Bush the intelligence was deeply flawed. Find out what Cheney told Bush...what Rice told Bush. All these people knew the intelligence was flawed. Did they let their country go to war on bad intelligence without doing their duty to tell the chief executive about it? And if none of them told, why? How could they all not tell, unless they were ordered not to tell? Why is Bush getting away with pretending that he didn't know his case for war was falling apart even BEFORE the war?

Everybody knew the case for war was built on lies. The Democrats went along because they were afraid to be called traitors. Now the Democrats are afraid their own cowardly prewar statements will get repeated, or worse yet, that their cowardice will be revealed.

I was so excited when Harry Reid stood up to the GOP on this but it looks like the pussies won't go along with it.