Roberts: Phase Two is on the "back burner"

[Rose Siding]

Senate Halts Iraq Intelligence Investigation

Morning Edition, March 11, 2005 · The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says the probe into whether the Bush administration manipulated pre-war intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is over. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) says since the panel earlier found intelligence to be flawed, there's no need to continue the probe. But other officials say the issue isn't dead yet.

AUDIO at link
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4530810

I transcribed the Woodrow Wilson Center quotes, from NPR's audio link:

"If you ask any member of the administration why did you make that declarative statement and then looked at the intelligence, basically the bottom line is they believed the intelligence and the intelligence was wrong"

"We see no evidence, or at least I can speak in regards to my staff, that there was any significant impact of the National Intelligence Estimate of 2002 by the Office of Special Plans, so that is, uh, basically on the back burner."

Additional references to Roberts' remarks from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_report_of_pre-war_intelligence_on_Iraq#.22Phase_two.22_of_the_investigation


On March 10, 2005, during a question-and-answer session after a speech he had given at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Senator Roberts said of the failure to complete phase two, "hat is basically on the back burner." Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), vice chairman of the Committee, made a statement later that day in which he said, "The Chairman agreed to this investigation and I fully expect him to fulfill his commitment... While the completion of phase two is long overdue, the committee has continued this important work, and I expect that we will finish the review in the very near future."

In a statement regarding the release of the report of the presidential WMD commission on March 31, 2005, Senator Roberts wrote, "I don’t think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further."

On April 10, 2005, Senators Roberts and Rockefeller appeared together on NBC's Meet the Press program. In response to a question about the completion of phase two of the investigation, Roberts said, "I'm perfectly willing to do it, and that's what we agreed to do, and that door is still open. And I don't want to quarrel with Jay, because we both agreed that we would get it done. But we do have--we have Ambassador Negroponte next week, we have General Mike Hayden next week. We have other hot-spot hearings or other things going on that are very important."