Posted on 10/27/2005 6:01:22 PM PDT by Angel
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff withheld documents from a Senate committee looking into intelligence on Iraq, the National Journal reported.
The documents included drafts of portions of a speech Colin Powell, then secretary of state, gave at the United Nations in February 2003, the newspaper said. The portions were written by I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Cheney`s chief of staff.
The Senate Intelligence Committee held hearings on the actions of intelligence agencies during the preparation for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but did not investigate questions concerning how the administration used the intelligence to build public support for the war.
The committee also sought information from the president`s daily briefing in the period before the invasion. A former senior administration official told the National Journal the decision to withhold the documents was at least partly political.
'Nobody wants something like this dissected or coming out in an election year,' the former official said.
The disclosure comes at a time when Libby and President Bush`s top political adviser Karl Rove face possible prosecution in connection with the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame`s identity.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
who is leaking this?
"The Senate Intelligence Committee held hearings on the actions of intelligence agencies during the preparation for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but did not investigate questions concerning how the administration used the intelligence to build public support for the war."
This was part of the anti-Bush spin the Dems spun before the release of the Senate report. The Senate report established there was no twisting, the meme which Wilson, etc. had been promoting. The report established for years intel believed Iraq had substantial WMDs and capabilities.
In sum intel said the WMDs were there. It was a "slam dunk". Bush repeated it.
"the former official said."
'Former'... LOL!
Who cares about drafts? The left must be getting real worried about Fitz if they put out meaningless crap like this.
When it's about a republican it's called "disclosure".
The libs better be careful what they wish for...a Cheney that resigns for health or other concerns, means an incumbent Condi Rice as Veep running for Prez in '08.
dick Clarke?
And, most of the time they end up in the waste basket.
Who are they trying to kid?
I saw that on Hairball....Ed Rogers, Rep. strategist laughed and said they are only drafts of speeches...
saying it was ridiculous to make this bigger than it is.
This is a big zero.
The administrative branch doesn't have to answer to the legislative branch.
I don't believe that any executive branch members testified under oath... but when Wilson lied, it was under oath.
Paging Mr Fitzgerald...
/crickets
Hmmm, how about those documents that were in Bergers pants - I don't think they were drafts......
My guess ... someone from the Senate Intelligence Committee or Powell maybe
Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel
I'm not sure if the National Journal is on the Approved Reading List or not.
I'll bet the sneaky SOB also withheld his 3rd grade report card from them as well. LOL
Documents were requested by the Senate Intelligence Comm. There is always tension between Congress and the WH, but in this case, since they've done nothing wrong, they shouldn't be holding back - the Senate is controlled by Repubs, they are not a witch hunt, but they do have to answer to constituents.
Probably a good idea to get the faulty intel docs out into the open. The admin. needs to place the blame where it belongs - on the CIA that gave them bad intel... and compelled them into a war they felt they needed, but never wanted, to wage.
Now what former official would talk to a liberal rag like the National Urinal? Probably Colin (Blow) Powell's former chief of staff. Whoever it is, why doesn't that individual have the guts to use his name? After all, this isn't the Clinton Administration. We haven't heard of anybody found dead in Fort Marcy Park in the last five and a half years.
This is NOT coming from "attorneys close to the case."
This has to be coming from the investigation itself.
And if this is true, this is devastating to not just Cheney, but the White House.
More Lame Stream Media working with the Plame/Wilson/CIA cabal to conjoin the "forged documents" planted in our Rome Embassy eight months after Wilson's trip and meant to thereafter be presented by this cabal as the administrations sole source of Iraqi-Africa-uranium intelligence (as though - wrong - Libby had those documents when working on Colin's speech!!!! ohohoh!!!
When the facts are that those documents were not in the intelligence stream that determined the request for Wilson's trip and they were not the cause of Wilson's trip and they were not an intelligence product of Wilson's trip.
They were put into the intelligence stream so that Wilson's claims about his own trip would seem to have some legitimate basis; when the facts are that they were not the sole, the heart, the primary basis for anything, before or after Wilson's trip. They were one very late item, among many items going over a number of years.
Wilson obviously knows how and why they were tainted because he is the one pushing them to have an importance in the intelligence stream that they do not have. They are just cover to back up the lies of what he claims he "proved" on his trip.
Watch how all the LSM people and "former CIA, former admin" people working with Wilson will continue to build up these documents for the value they do not have, the value Wilson needs them to have.
Who can believe any longer that he was not aware of their creation?? This is what Fitzgerald should be investigating.
This is much more than leaking Plame's name.
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