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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.
Excellent point! Absolutely excellent!
No doubt any information given will be leaked to the MSM.
The president does not need Congressional approval to declassify anything. They can meet in secret and he can provide the press with the document.
Isn't that an oxymoron? Wait, it's the Democrats...they are just morons.
What I find interesting is Nancy was out there in public screaming about how bad things were according to the report that was supposed to be classified. Then once the Prez called her and the rest of them out by releasing the report, she tries to hide the report.
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Hey, cool tagline...
Children will do anything for attention.
Rope-a-doped again???
The new plan is to slam FOX as Conservative hit fake news organization and bolster Keith Olberman as the balanced news anchor of our time....
MISUNDERESTIMATED
again.
it was denied? i don't like it one bit, the dems can now say Bush cherry picked the doc, the proof will be the closed session was voted down...by changing the debate on Iraq the only thing pelosi can mean is to the dems favor...and the neocons were not willing to have a debate as to what to declassify
"Is this supposed to be wrong? Sounds like good policy in our War against Terrorists who Murder Americans. When you have enough flies stuck, you tear off the sheet and throw it away. Would they prefer the terrorists to be over here?"
True but the downside is that many innocent Iraqis are making the ultimate sacrifice so that the war is not here, we should never forget that, and be sober and thankful in our remembering.
Looks like they didn't coordinate their knee-jerk reactions very well. When the pundits start comparing both reactions it's going to make the Dem's look even sillier, Karl Rove will herniate himself laughing and a lot of staffers will be unemployed.
Yep!
LOL
Wow --- their duplicity is unmatched.
i think the democrats expected a fight (and thus generated political capital) out of the full document.
It appears they will not have a Gorelick wall to protect them from the unadulterated content.
Heh heh...boy, the DemocRATS really walked into that one, didn't they??? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
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