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Senator: Report on Iraq Intelligence 'Damning'
Reuters ^ | 03/12/04 | Tabassum Zakaria

Posted on 03/12/2004 12:30:47 PM PST by Pikamax

Senator: Report on Iraq Intelligence 'Damning' Fri Mar 12, 2004 03:14 PM ET

By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report about prewar intelligence on Iraq will be "tough and damning" and spread the blame around, a senior Republican senator said on Friday.

"It will be damning of some of the intelligence. I think it's going to be highly critical, it will be critical of a lot of different programs and people," said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, third-ranking in the Senate Republican leadership.

The blame spreads over Democratic and Republican administrations, intelligence agencies and Congress, he said. "Nobody is without blame."

The report is expected to be issued this spring, possibly in April.

Kyl's comments came in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations aimed at countering harsh criticism of the Republican administration by Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, a week earlier to the same group.

Kennedy's case that the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence to Congress and the public to go to war against Iraq was "long on innuendo and very short on facts," Kyl said.

Administration officials had based their comments about Iraq on intelligence assessments, he said. "They did not ... distort, mislead, or misrepresent what the intelligence community said."

U.S. intelligence reports before the war said Iraq had biological and chemical weapons and was developing a nuclear weapon, but since the U.S.-led invasion last year no such banned weapons have been found.

KEY ELECTION ISSUE

Democrats say the Republican White House exaggerated the threat from Iraq to gather support for the war. Republicans say it is too early to draw conclusions because the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has not ended and the administration's comments were based on assessments by the intelligence agencies.

It has become a hot-button political issue ahead of the presidential election in November.

Kennedy, who has taken a high-profile role in the presidential campaign of fellow Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry, in last week's speech accused Republican President Bush of exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq for political gain.

"That charge, if more than just over-the-top bluster, would be close to an allegation of treason -- suggesting that the president deliberately put our young men and women in harm's way for no purpose other than politics," Kyl said.

"Such a charge would not only sap the morale of the troops who are fighting even now, it would undercut our entire position on the war on terror generally and in Iraq specifically," Kyl said.

Kyl, a former member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said congressional oversight of spy agencies was "not very good" because lawmakers serve on several committees and have limited staff so cannot devote full attention to one issue.

"You would literally have to spend all of your time on this to really be able to know what kind of questions to ask, and because you don't have personal staff you get fed the questions," Kyl said.

"I mean it is not a good oversight set up, it is not calculated to really provide oversight, and I suspect that the intelligence agencies, including the CIA, like it that way a whole lot," he said.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; kyl; prewarintelligence
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To: Pikamax
I'm thinking the Clintons overstated the war with Iraq to Bush so Hill could pick it up in 2004.

He was well aware of how the country would react (or thought so any way) when he floated that balloon with Maddie and Cohen.

Yep. I'm pretty much sold on that - Clinton's lukewarm support for it speaks volumes.
21 posted on 03/12/2004 1:07:10 PM PST by mabelkitty (A tuning, a Vote in the topic package to the starting US presidency election fight)
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To: PISANO; familyofman
They were in POWER for only 7.5 months before 911 took place.

That's true.

This article is about a report concerning pre-war intelligence with respect to Iraq.

Different subject.

(And you don't really think that a new administration sweeps out all the scumbags from the old administration, do you? If so, why is there civil service?)

22 posted on 03/12/2004 1:09:24 PM PST by logician2u
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To: Pikamax
Will we hear about this in the report? Need Intelligence? Don't ask Kerry by Florida Comgressmen C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee and Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, who chairs the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
23 posted on 03/12/2004 1:12:16 PM PST by NonValueAdded (He says "Bring it on!!" Then when you do, he says, "How dare you!! ")
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To: CasearianDaoist
The question is is why are GOP legislators aiding the Rats. They must know that this will harm Bush

A lot of people see this for what it is, typical Washington politics,I'll rub your back if you rub mine and they wonder why the public has little trust in anything that is said or done in Washington.
24 posted on 03/12/2004 1:40:13 PM PST by boxerblues (Trolls...give em another brain and it would get lonesome as the one they got ain't worth a d@mn)
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To: CasearianDaoist
The question is is why are GOP legislators aiding the Rats.

Just as we ought not convene investigations for political reasons, we ought not avoid needed investigations for political reasons. IF our intelligence (and that of the whole world, apparently) was problematic, we need to find out what the problems are, where weaknesses are, and how to fix it.

The problem ISN'T that this is being investigated. The problem is that the media will only trumpet problems which point at Bush.

25 posted on 03/12/2004 1:47:06 PM PST by Dianna
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To: Pikamax; dead
"Nobody is without blame."

Well, I think, in all honesty, I am.

And I think dead was watching TV.

Dead?

Dan

26 posted on 03/12/2004 1:50:23 PM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: BibChr
I was sleeping on my couch the whole time.
27 posted on 03/12/2004 1:51:23 PM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: OneTimeLurker
I think Chalabi knows that WMD is going to be found. He said something to a female reporter who smirked when Chalabi said the search for WMD wasn't over. He said (and I'm not quoting it exactly) "You shouldn't be smiling and shaking your head "no" because you are going to look very foolish when it is found.

There is going to be more on this story folks.
28 posted on 03/12/2004 2:28:45 PM PST by BushisTheMan
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To: JohnGalt
Haven't finished it yet, but so far, no.
29 posted on 03/12/2004 2:35:07 PM PST by EEDUDE (Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.)
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To: PISANO
The LEAST blame should befall the GW administration due to one simple fact. They were in POWER for only 7.5 months before 911 took place.

And it was the administration who finally did something about it, while the previous one did nothing serious about it.

30 posted on 03/12/2004 2:42:19 PM PST by Kaslin (It is now more important then ever that we re-elect President Bush)
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To: familyofman
Hold on now.......I said the LEAST amount of responsibility for the attack should rest on GW's shoulders. I did NOT hold him harmless. I simply quantified 'responsibility' for the attack as I believe it to actually be.

By the way George Bush is TAKING responsibility for 911. He has recognized the attack as an act of WAR and is replying in kind. But to PRIMARILY BLAME him for 911 because he was the POTUS at the time of the attack is not to gauge the whole truth.

31 posted on 03/12/2004 4:45:10 PM PST by PISANO (Our troops...... will NOT tire...will NOT falter.....and WILL NOT FAIL!!!)
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