No WMD, No Answers

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November 3, 2005
Original Message --------
Subject: Progress Report: Defanging the 'TABOR-Toothed Tiger'
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 08:40:15 -0800
From: American Progress Action Fund <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
To: xxxx

INTELLIGENCE
No WMD, No Answers

It's been 32 months since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the administration and its allies in Congress refuse to answer fundamental question about why the administration launched a preemptive to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that were never found. Since that time, more than 2,000 American troops have lost their lives and American taxpayers have paid in excess of $200 billion to finance the war. Speaking on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) laid out a few of the questions that still need answers: "How did the Bush administration assemble its case for war against Iraq? ...Who did the Bush administration officials listen to and who did they ignore? How did the senior administration officials manipulate or manufacture intelligence presented to the Congress and the American people?" These questions were supposed to be addressed in "Phase II" of a Senate Intelligence Committee review of pre-war intelligence. Despite explicit promises by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) to complete "Phase II" months ago, it is still unfinished and there is no report. To force the issue, Reid invoked Rule 21 and brought the Senate into closed session to discuss the status of the investigation. The bold move worked and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) agreed to appoint a bipartisan panel of six senators "charged with determining the status of the latest phase of the probe and reporting back to their colleagues by Nov. 14."

WHEN NATIONAL SECURITY IS AT STAKE, YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO BE POLITE: Instead of focusing on the substance, Majority Leader Bill Frist spent a great deal of time complaining that his feelings were hurt. Shortly after the closed session was called, Frist ran to a bank of cameras and declared that he had never "been slapped in the face with such an affront to the leadership of this grand institution...This is an affront to me personally." This isn't about Sen. Frist. It's about the country and why we went to war.

PASS THE BUCK, WHITE HOUSE EDITION: The New York Times opines, "The indictment of Lewis Libby on charges of lying to a grand jury about the outing of Valerie Wilson has focused attention on the lengths to which the Bush administration went in 2003 to try to distract the public from this central fact: American soldiers found a lot of things in Iraq, including a well-armed insurgency their bosses never anticipated, but they did not find weapons of mass destruction." The White House is still going to great lengths to avoid answering questions about the manipulation of intelligence prior to the Iraq war. Press secretary Scott McClellan even attempted to pass the buck for the Iraq war to the Clinton administration. Asked about the efforts of Reid and others to force a closer examination of pre-war intelligence, McClellan said he "might want to start with looking at the previous administration and their own statements that they’ve made." The AP didn't take the bait and described his tactics in an article entitled "White House Ducks Prewar Intel Questions."

PASS THE BUCK, CONGRESSIONAL EDITION: Sen. Roberts, who promised to complete Phase II, also pointed the finger. In a press release, Roberts wrote, "My hope is that the Democrats will finally sit down to do this very important work. Unfortunately, rather than working in a bipartisan manner to vote out a report on this issue, they obstructed our work back on May 17, 2005, and now, in an act of profound irony, they are engaging in a petty public stunt to attack me for not completing our work on Phase II." Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) debunked that claim. Rockefeller said, "I have reviewed the official transcript from the May 17 meeting, and I regret that the Chairman’s memory is not accurate. There was no disagreement about how to proceed. ... repeatedly urged the Chairman to move forward on the work and to finish Phase II in a timely manner." Rockefeller proposed an easy way to settle the dispute: "I strongly urge the Chairman to release the 37 page transcript of the May 17 meeting which contains no classified information."

MCCLELLAN MAKES A BAD SITUATION WORSE: McClellan told reporters yesterday that "they’ve had phase one and phase two" of the Senate investigation into pre-war intelligence. Of course, that's not true. Now more than ever, McClellan needs to be sure that what he tells the press is accurate. The Washington Post reported this morning, "Many mid-level staffers inside have expressed frustration that press secretary Scott McClellan's credibility was undermined by Rove, who told the spokesman that he was not involved in the leak, according to people familiar with the case."

[Brotherjohn]

1. Here's a link to the page:

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=917053#4

Scroll down or click "No WMDs No Answers".