Posted on 11/04/2003 1:56:35 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Edited on 11/04/2003 2:47:08 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
A memo circulated among Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence shows the committee's minority plotting to use classified information against the White House in next year's presidential campaign.
The document, obtained and disclosed by nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity Tuesday afternoon, suggests that the top priority among senior Democrats entrusted with guarding the nation's security is instead driving the Bush administration from power based on claims it exaggerated intelligence on the threat posed by Iraq.
The memo as reported by Hannity reads as follows:
"We have carefully reviewed our options under the rules and believe we have identified the best approach. Our plan is as follows:
"1) Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. We are having some success in that regard.
"For example, in addition to the President's State of the Union speech, the chairman [Sen. Pat Roberts] has agreed to look at the activities of the office of the Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, as well as Secretary Bolton's office at the State Department.
"The fact that the chairman supports our investigations into these offices and cosigns our requests for information is helpful and potentially crucial. We don't know what we will find but our prospects for getting the access we seek is far greater when we have the backing of the majority. [We can verbally mention some of the intriguing leads we are pursuing.]
"2) Assiduously prepare Democratic 'additional views' to attach to any interim or final reports the committee may release. Committee rules provide this opportunity and we intend to take full advantage of it.
"In that regard we may have already compiled all the public statements on Iraq made by senior administration officials. We will identify the most exaggerated claims. We will contrast them with the intelligence estimates that have since been declassified. Our additional views will also, among other things, castigate the majority for seeking to limit the scope of the inquiry.
"The Democrats will then be in a strong position to reopen the question of establishing an Independent Commission [i.e., the Corzine Amendment.]
"3) Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation of the administration's use of intelligence at any time. But we can only do so once.
"The best time to do so will probably be next year, either:
"A) After we have already released our additional views on an interim report, thereby providing as many as three opportunities to make our case to the public. Additional views on the interim report (1). The announcement of our independent investigation (2). And (3) additional views on the final investigation. Or:
"B) Once we identify solid leads the majority does not want to pursue, we would attract more coverage and have greater credibility in that context than one in which we simply launch an independent investigation based on principled but vague notions regarding the use of intelligence.
"In the meantime, even without a specifically authorized independent investigation, we continue to act independently when we encounter footdragging on the part of the majority. For example, the FBI Niger investigation was done solely at the request of the vice chairman. We have independently submitted written requests to the DOD and we are preparing further independent requests for information.
"SUMMARY: Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq. Yet we have an important role to play in revealing the misleading, if not flagrantly dishonest, methods and motives of senior administration officials who made the case for unilateral preemptive war.
"The approach outlined above seems to offer the best prospect for exposing the administration's dubious motives." [End of Memo Excerpt.]
The revelation that Democrats are using the intelligence committee to conduct opposition research for the coming presidential campaign demands an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, Hannity said.
Uh, maybe it's because they want the 'Rats to cut the crap and instead use the Intel Committee to conduct the people's business. You know, for the good of the country.
no, i don't believe him -- but when the ranking member of the committee confirms that a memo highly damaging to his own party members on the committee is genuine, that's pretty solid confirmation. i think that rockefeller is neither bright nor honest. indeed, i think that on the stupidmeter he scores well in the red. in the crookedmeter he's about the middle of the democrat pack, behind hillary dearest and john "i was in vietnam so i haven't always been a coward" kerry. but he's confirmed that the memo is legitimate, and that does much to blow out of the water the stuff that it purports to do. now the only one who will believe what the democrats are up to here is paul "if i told the truth i'd die" krugman.
meanwhile, i think that the presumption of guilt ought to exist: that unrtil we know which democrats on the committee are responsible, we must assume that all democrats on the committee are responsible.
this is not the kind of thing that a staffer would freelance. first, because it's too dangerous and second, because democrat staffers on the hill, while certainly that devious, aren't that smart.
it was a truly disappointing performance, wasn't it. which is a great argument for term limits -- so that they don't all become each other's bugger brothers. there was a time, now long lamented, when a senator in roberts's position would show up in congress tomorrow with a cane, which he would use to beat the living hell out of rockefeller. oh, to mourn for the bygone day!
Okay.
The strategy is clearly outlined; the attack plan is clear.
Just read through it again.
Very sophisticated when composted with the major networks on the 6PM News.
They will kill our own to gain power.
You're not losing your mind.
All Roberts could say was how he has talked to Rockerfeller (who is a "good friend") and now he (Roberts) wants to "build bridges" back to the other side so they can continue to operate in a "bipartisan manner".
What bullshiite!
Sickening.
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