(That pic just never gets old! LOL!)
Posted on 09/26/2006 10:12:20 AM PDT by Lunatic Fringe
Edited on 09/26/2006 10:29:59 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi asked her colleagues Tuesday to close the House's doors for a highly unusual secret session to discuss a classified intelligence analysis on global terrorism.
Such a session hasn't happened in the House since July 1983, when the chamber went into a closed session to discuss the United States' support for paramilitary operations in Nicaragua.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the secret session is necessary to allow members to better understand the intelligence community's most recent assessment on global terrorism.
She said she hoped House Republicans would recognize the need for such an internal debate on the document, some of which leaked to the news media over the weekend.
According to the media reports, the intelligence estimate "is the administration's worst nightmare. It is not a corroboration of what the president is saying. It is a contradiction of what the president is saying," she said.
Pelosi's move followed President Bush's announcement that he will declassify the key findings of the intelligence assessment, which he and his top advisers have portrayed as a broad look at trends in terrorism rather than focusing on the impact of Iraq on U.S. national security.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the Republican-controlled House would allow the Democratic effort to shift the chamber's attention to one of the most controversial political issues of the November elections: the Bush administration's policies in the war on terror and its handling of the situation in Iraq.
Pelosi's maneuver required a simple majority of the House to approve.
The National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism is the most recent analysis of the nation's top intelligence analysts who work in 16 different spy agencies. Since its disclosure, the Bush administration has been rebutting suggestions that the analysis finds the U.S. is at greater risk of attack because of the Iraq invasion.
Speaking at a Washington dinner Monday night, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said the report broadly addressed the global terrorist threat, not just the impact of Iraq. He acknowledged that U.S. analysts believe "the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives."
But he said the war in Iraq remains important to the outcome. "Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight," he said.
The House has only had five closed sessions since 1812, according to the Congressional Research Service.
In the Senate, any single member can take the chamber into closed session. As a result, the chamber has held several dozen secret sessions since 1929, including one last November called by Democrats who wanted to discuss the intelligence used by President Bush in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Pelosi surprised even most of her fellow Democrats in offering the motion. She said she was not trying to use the closed session for political purposes, but rather to discuss a serious assessment that is relevant to Iraq and U.S. national security. She wants to see the administration declassify the document — without using a selective lens.
"Quite frankly, my view is that any responsible declassification will change the course of this debate on Iraq," she said.
I love the smell of strategery in the morning...
Once its declassified the leakers can be revealed.
What's the plan here?
Politics
We have a winner!
Among the questions that will be asked are:
What is this "intelligence" thing we keep hearing about?
How can we get some of this "intelligence"?
Can we blame our lack of "intelligence" on the Bush Administration?
Will Bill Clinton ever go away?
It's not his finger that wagging this time......
Let me get this straight:
The bad guys leak part of an intelligence report to hurt the administration
The administration said, lets show the whole story
The bad guys are scared
You have to wait til the evening news to find out what was said.
Why? They can't secrets .
(That pic just never gets old! LOL!)
Can't keep
Bingo
This just shows what cowards the Dems are. They don't want to discuss the whole report, they want to cherry pick it.
Why doesn't the Speaker state that the Dems can have their "closed session" after the Congress finishes all the other legislative business already on the agenda?
If the Dems pout and "take a hike" -- then passing the various necessary bills on time will be much easier, IMHO.
They played with fire and got burned.
Yah !
Post of the day!
How? By voluntarily coming forward?
They just realized they walked into another Perfect Rovian TrapTM.
Just like a players-only, closed-door meeting, this is only called when the wheels are falling off.
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