GOP Slams Dems for Politicizing Iraq Intel
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
By Liza Porteus
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Wednesday slammed Democrats for even thinking of using intelligence information about the Iraq war against President Bush as a means to embarrass him during his 2004 re-election campaign.
"I never saw the kind of blatant partisan politics that has apparently emerged as revealed in this memo," said Sen. John Kyl (search), R-Ariz. "It is a disgusting possibility that members of the Senate would try to politicize intelligence, especially at a time of war ... it is reprehensible."
At the same time, Democrats used the incident to fuel their argument that only an independent commission can effectively probe just how the intelligence was used leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sen. Dick Durbin (search), D-Ill., said the memo flap demonstrates "now, more than ever" that there needs to be "transparency, credibility" in the intelligence investigation and that can best be reached through an independent commission.
Fox News obtained a document believed to have been written by the Democratic staff of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that outlines a strategy for exposing what it calls "the administration's dubious motives" in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.
The memo, provided late Tuesday by a committee source, discusses the timing of a possible investigation into pre-war Iraq intelligence in such a way that it could bring maximum embarrassment to Bush.
"I am disappointed that the discussion in the presidential primary has totally ignored or forgotten the old adage that 'politics stops at the water's edge' -- that we should not be getting into political battles when we have troops in harm's way and there's no question we have troops in harm's way," Sen. Kit Bond (search), R-Mo., said on the Senate floor.
"It's clear from this memo that it suggests, at least at the staff level, a Democratic game plan to make the intelligence committee a focal point for the 2004 presidential debate."
Republicans called on Democrats to repudiate the memo.
The memo calls for Democrats to: "pull the majority along as far as we can" on issues that could equate to questionable conduct by administration officials; "castigate the majority" for trying to limit the scope of the inquiry into the intelligence; and prepare to launch an independent investigation "when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority."
"Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq," the memo stated. "We have an important role to play in the revealing the misleading - if not flagrantly dishonest methods and motives - of the senior administration officials who made the case for a unilateral, preemptive war. The approach outline above seems to offer the best prospect for exposing the administration's dubious motives and motives."
Sen. Pat Roberts (search), R-Kans., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the panel can only effectively investigate the intelligence matters if there are no efforts underway to undermine the process.
"Our goal is to discover the facts - not to target any individuals or to serve any agenda," Roberts said.
Noting that the panel still has spent almost six months pouring over thousands of documents related to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and its ties to terrorism and has interviewed 100 people so far, with still more work to go, Roberts added: "It is critical that all of this take place in an atmosphere of good faith and mutual trust. Secret plans to undermine the committee's work are examples of neither."
But Democrats say the GOP is stonewalling them and that committee's vice chair, Sen. John D. Rockefeller (search), D-W. Va., has been more than patient in pushing the majority too much on getting them the information they want.
"Our credibility is at stake," said Sen. Evan Bayh (search), D-Ind., adding about the issues of weapons of mass destruction, "We need to get to the bottom of this and determine if they do exist and what we can do root them out and if they don't exist, why we were led to believe that they do."
Noting that the congressional intelligence committees have a close relationship with the intelligence agencies, the committees "are really not in the position to do a thorough and independent investigation because political views will get in the way from both sides of the aisle," Rep. Adam Schiff (search), D-Calif., told Fox News.
Schiff, a member of the House International Affairs Committee, said getting to the root of why the United States went to war with Saddam Hussein "is not only important as to the fact why we went to war ... but more important if we're going to avoid another Sept. 11 … we have got to know it, it's in our future security best interest."
Committee members have complained about the slowness of the Bush administration to provide requested materials and set last Friday as the response deadline. The senators said three federal agencies have complied with their request. But the White House, while saying it would work with the committee, has not agreed to comply. |
