Democrat Challenges Bush* on Iraqi Intelligence Lapse

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 — The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is calling on President Bush to provide a public accounting next week of why prewar American intelligence assessments that Iraq possessed illicit weapons now appear to have been mistaken.

Mr. Bush should use his State of the Union address on Tuesday "to acknowledge the problems and outline specific steps to fix them," Representative Jane Harman of California will say in a speech in Los Angeles, according to an advance text provided by her office.

Despite months of intensive searches, American inspectors in Iraq have not yet found evidence of the chemical and biological weapons and the nuclear weapons program in Iraq that the intelligence agencies said existed.

The Bush administration, which pointed to those assessments as a main reason for invading Iraq last March, has said almost nothing publicly since October about the status of the search for illegal weapons, except to insist that it still too soon to say whether the intelligence agencies were wrong.

But Ms. Harman, whose position on the intelligence committee gives her access to highly classified intelligence briefings, says in the advance text of her speech that the intelligence agencies "connected the dots to the wrong conclusions."

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/01/16/politics/16WEAP.html

[frank frankly]

1. thank fucking gawd

c'mon c'mon c'mon

fight these motherfuckers

[alcuno]

2. Jane Harman? That old hawk?

She was shilling like a madwoman for the cabal last winter and spring.

[PurityOfEssence]

5. You might be confusing a bit of a religion issue there...

It's the third rail of American Politics to even mention it, but many Jewish politicians went along with getting rid of Saddam because of his long-standing antagonism of Israel and support of the Palestinians.

Here in L.A., four rather honorable Democratic Congresspeople voted for the war resolution, and oddly enough, they're all Jewish: Schiff, Harman, Berman and Waxman. Yep, Henry Waxman voted for the resolution.

Much of the "supported terrorism" rhetoric that's been used against Hussein is true, but it's terrorism against Israel, not the United States.

Harman's a mixed bag, all right, but she's no Feinstein; she's got some guts and brains, and she's not one to be toyed with. I hope she stirs up a ruckus here.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Could have left out the word "Iraqi" and the headline would still be true.

:)

[daleo]

4. Sounds like she wants to blame the intelligence agencies

As it reads, it more or less lets Bush/PNAC off the hook. It was the darn intel agencies who connected the dots badly, not the administration, who is at fault. I hope I am wrong.