Posted on 11/09/2003 10:29:04 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a senior Democratic member of the panel clashed in unusually sharp and public ways today in a dispute that has interrupted the committee's review of prewar intelligence on Iraq. The dispute stems from the leak of an internal draft memorandum by a Democratic staff member. The memo suggested that because the committee's inquiry was focusing on the work of intelligence agencies, and not on how the White House used intelligence, Democrats should be ready to disavow the panel's findings and "pull the trigger" to demand an independent investigation. Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is the chairman of the committee, said on "Fox News Sunday," "I was stunned by this memo, shocked by this memo." In a voice shaking with anger, he said that the Democratic memo jeopardized a 30-year history on the committee — one of the most sensitive in Congress — of nonpartisan activity. "What this memo has done," he added, "is really poisoned the well." Mr. Roberts was particularly vexed, he said, that Democrats had generally failed to renounce the substance of the memo. "I'm very upset about this," he said. But Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, a senior Democratic member, replied that Republicans were using their outrage over the memo — which he and other Democrats said must have been stolen — to avoid addressing its central point. The uproar, he said, "should not be allowed to change the subject from the refusal of the Republicans to look at the use of intelligence by the administration — and that's what the issue is." The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, has suspended the committee's work — which Mr. Roberts said today was 90 percent complete — until Democrats disavowed the memo, named its author and apologized to Mr. Roberts. The panel, Dr. Frist said, had been "harmed by a blatant partisan attack." Mr. Roberts said the inquiry would be completed. But he added, "Somebody has to disavow this memo or else it's going to be very difficult to put this committee back together again." Mr. Levin showed little inclination to do so. He said that the administration had issued such "exaggerated" statements about the risk it said Iraq had posed to the world that "they took us to war." If Republicans refused to examine those statements, he said, he would not disavow the option to call for an independent review.
Very good point.
She just wants to be. Thanks for setting the record right. I knew she wasn't on this commitee but many here thought she was.
FMCDH
He said that the administration had issued such "exaggerated" statements about the risk it said Iraq had posed to the world that "they took us to war."
If Republicans refused to examine those statements, he said, he would not disavow the option to call for an independent review.
Well, this proves the point of the strategy, but maybe the NY Times reporter is too dim to get it. That, or he's disinclined to think poorly of it.
Levin proves that before they even have a handle on the actual intelligence information they are going to go ahead and accuse the administration of exaggerating or lying about that intelligence.
Geeze, and the media still acts like it's a two-way "everybody does it" partisan wrangling, with the Republicans being the likely obstructionists.
No way are they going to get away with this garbage and bravo to Frist.
Thank goodness for small favors. She is NOT on the committee.
That isn't to say she couldn't not have a hand in this plot.
Ditto, ditto and ditto!
Today we learned that North Korea has the means, the fissionable materials, and the desire to produce nuclear weapons ... they are on the verge of testing a nuclear weapon, not just the technology. North Korea sold and shipped missiles to Iraq, banned missiles that were not detected until we entered the country and took Saddam down!
Does any sane person believe that given Saddam's more than a decade efforts to possess nuclear capabilities he, Saddam, wouldn't have bought nuclear weapons from North Korea? ... And they would have been shipped and fielded without the U.N doofuses (guided by French treachery) 'detecting' them! In fact, the treacherous French might have begun competing with the N. Koreans for the Saddam nuclear market!
Carl Levin, and every damn one of the lying, seditious, treacherous, anti-American democrats spouting off are a greater threat to our national security than even al Qaeda, though they are aiding and abetting the terorists activities of al Qaeda and the other radical Islamicists murdering people world-wide! make no mistake, the democrat party leadership will either destroy that party or bring about massive death and destruction to Americans and America's Soldiers in the field. PERIOD.
Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is on both of the above-mentioned Senate committees. In addition to that, he and Hillary are both on the "Emerging Threats and Capabilities" sub-committee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As someone mentioned to me when I posted this on another thread, she is probably not stupid enough to make a "direct connection," but the easy availability of passing notes (as in high school) is too obvious to ignore.
Just speculating....
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