Reply #45: Senate Intelligence Committee Report Pre-War Iraq

[nomatrix]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Report_of_Pre-war_Intelligence_on_Iraq

At the conclusion of PHASE I (see statement at bottom)

Senators Rockefeller, Levin, and Durbin

Senators John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) (the Committee's vice-chairman), Carl Levin (D-MI), and Richard Durbin (D-IL), used their additional view to say that the report painted an incomplete picture, because the Committee had put off until phase two of the investigation the key question of "how intelligence on Iraq was used or misused by Administration officials in public statements and reports." Because of this, they said, "the Committee’s phase one report fails to fully explain the environment of intense pressure in which Intelligence Community officials were asked to render judgments on matters relating to Iraq when policy officials had already forcefully stated their own conclusions in public."

-snip-

"At the time of the report's release (July 9, 2004), Democratic members of the committee expressed the hope that "phase two" of the investigation, which was to include an assessment of how the Iraqi WMD intelligence was used by senior policymakers, would be completed quickly. Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) said of phase two, "It is a priority. I made my commitment and it will get done."


From July 9, 2004 to September 8, 2006 Committee Chairman Roberts(R) stalled the release of Phase II keeping it classified.

"Two volumes of the phase II report were released on September 8, 2006: "Postwar Findings about Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How they Compare with Prewar Assessments" and "The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress." The conclusions of these reports were that there was no prewar evidence that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction and there was no evidence that Saddam had links to al-Qaeda."

Until this book by former CIA director came out, making it sound like he was the only one claiming "I told you so" Levin didn't need to stand up and make it clear THEY HAD BEEN SAYING IT ALL ALONG-BUT ROBERTS KEPT IT CLASSIFIED. You can look it up under Thomas.gov how many time Senators John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) (the Committee's vice-chairman)pushed Roberts to release this information.