"Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee announced Friday plans to stage their own inquiry on the credibility of prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and its links to the al-Qaida terror network."
This turn of events is significant. For Levin to turn on Warner is big news and it indicates how serious the situation is...Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) is a powerful man. He is showing that is also a courageous and principled man. He is answering the call, I am certain, of those many officers in the military and career intel professionals who are deeply troubled by what has happened here...Michigan, BTW, is a key "battleground" state in the Electoral College game. It rejected the mean-spirited, small-minded princeling twice in 2000. It voted for McCain in the GOP primary and for Gore in the aborted election.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030627/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_4
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee announced Friday plans to stage their own inquiry on the credibility of prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and its links to the al-Qaida terror network.
The announcement by Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, the panel's top Democrat, marked an unusual split with Chairman John Warner, R-Va., on an issue with strong political overtones ahead of next year's elections. Warner and Levin are longtime colleagues on the committee and repeatedly stress bipartisan cooperation.
Democrats in both the House and Senate have been pushing for widened examinations of prewar intelligence beyond reviews already under way by both bodies' intelligence committees.
Levin said he has directed Democratic staff to examine the objectivity and credibility of the intelligence and its effect on Defense Department policy decisions, military planning and operations in Iraq.
He said Warner refused his request to begin such an inquiry. In a letter released by Levin, Warner said the committee should wait until the Senate Intelligence Committee has completed its review, then decide how to move ahead. Both Levin and Warner are members of the intelligence panel.
The Armed Services Committee, meanwhile, will continue oversight hearings on military operations in Iraq, Warner said in the letter. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, head of U.S. Central Command, will appear before the panel the week of July 7.
He said Levin's review is "clearly your prerogative" and said his staff may work periodically with Levin's.
In a statement, Warner's press secretary, John Ullyot, said the committee has held four hearings on the weapons and intelligence issues and will hold more, in addition to the Intelligence Committee review.
"Sen. Levin is welcome to direct his own staff to look into these matters as well," he said.
Levin and Warner will be traveling together next week to Iraq and the Middle East, along with the leaders of the Intelligence Committee and other senators.
The prewar intelligence has been called into question both nationally and abroad because of the military's inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Also, some evidence cited by the Bush administration has been discredited, including documents on supposed approaches to obtain uranium in Africa, which turned out to be forgeries.
At a news conference in Washington, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said Friday the failure to find the weapons was a defeat for her government, which strongly supported the war.
"There is a pervasive concern when and how we will find them," Palacio said. But she said she was relaxed about the weapons search.
Republicans say there is little doubt the weapons existed and accuse Democrats of questioning the intelligence and its use for political reasons. They defeated three attempts by House Democrats this week to expand the weapons inquiries as part of an intelligence bill approved early Friday.
On Thursday, 24 House Democrats announced that would seek an independent commission to examine the Iraq intelligence. They say they want to know whether intelligence was inaccurate or whether the administration presented a distorted interpretation of the intelligence to make the case for war.
Democrats have also questioned whether the Bush administration overstated Iraqi links to al-Qaida. A recently completed draft report by a U.N. terrorism committee on efforts to stop al-Qaida operations does not mention Iraq. The committee has seen no evidence of links between Iraq and al-Qaida, said its chief investigator Michael Chandler.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday that the committee's mandate did not include examining Iraqi links to al-Qaida. He said the committee lacked the expertise to assess any links.
In addition to the intelligence issue, Democrats and some Republicans have criticized President Bush (news - web sites) for not speaking publicly of the long-term costs and U.S. troop commitments that will be needed in Iraq.
Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, urged Bush to ask for help policing Iraq from the NATO (news - web sites) military alliance and its member states.
"I implore the president to kind of get over his feelings about the Europeans, and the French and the Germans in particular, and seek their assistance because I believe they are ready to assist. They need to be asked," Biden said.
In an interview with NPR's "All Things Considered," Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said "a large presence of troops" will be needed for months to stabilize the country, improve security and eliminate remnants of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime and his Baathist Party.
"I can't be more precise than that, because we don't know," he said.
Posted by richard at June 28, 2003 05:49 PM