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<<< Senator Rockefeller - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
After years of delays, (brought on by the Senate Republicans), the Senate Select Committee Report on the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq has finally been published. It took 5 years of squabbling, but finally the 170 page detailed report, endorsed by both Democrats and Republicans, concluded that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their aides "built a public case for war against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq's weapons programs and Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda."
This is the most comprehensive effort to date that has determined that the administration's policy makers systematically painted a more dire picture about Iraq than could be justified by the available intelligence. The report specifically accuses Bush, Cheney and other top Republican Administration officials for overstating the Iraqi threat in the emotional aftermath of the attacks of 9/11. These findings were endorsed by both Democratic and the Republican committee members.
The Chairman of the intelligence panel, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, (D-West Virginia), stated that; "The president and his advisers undertook a relentless public campaign in the aftermath of the attacks (of 9/11) to use the war against Al Qaeda as a justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein."
As to be expected, Dana Perino, the current White House spokesperson, called the report a "selective view" and once again said that the Bush Administration made its decisions to go to war based on the same, "faulty intelligence that was given at the time, to both the administration and the Congress by foreign intelligence services".
What continues to amaze me over the past few years is why is no one in authority from either party asking that the president and his administration take responsibility for what may eventually be determined as the worst debacle in the history of the greatest nation on earth. In the first place, the United States has multiple intelligence resources that are considered among the best and the most modern intelligence agencies in the world. And the president's people now have the gall to blame their decisions on "faulty intelligence from foreign intelligence services"...?
This latest bipartisan report admits that the public statements from Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and the other senior officials regarding Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs were "substantiated" by the best estimates at the time. However, the report also found that the administration did not reflect the intelligence agencies "uncertainties" about the disputes of the intelligence among the agencies themselves. The report and Senator Rockefeller have criticized the president and the vice president for mistakenly linking Iraq to Al Qaeda and for unjustifiably raising the possibility that Saddam would supply Al Qaeda with unconventional weapons of mass destruction (WMD's). Senator Rockefeller also stated that at the time, the administration was; "Representing to the American people that the two (parties in Iraq) had an operational partnership and posed a single, indistinguishable threat (that) was fundamentally misleading and (had) led the U.S. to war on false premises."
The report goes on to state that in September 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, then the U.S. defense secretary, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, "the Iraq problem cannot be solved by air strikes alone" because Iraqi chemical and biological weapons were so deeply buried that they could not be penetrated by American bombs. Two months later however, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) wrote an assessment for Mr. Rumsfeld that concluded that the Iraqi underground weapons facilities were "vulnerable to conventional, precision guided, penetrating munitions because they were not deeply buried". It is also interesting that it has been confirmed by Senator Ron Wyden of the intelligence committee that somehow the Congress and the Senate Armed Services Committee were never informed of this report from the NIC.
Now, with this information, and with the recent "tell all" book from the former White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, that also supports that the Bush Administration was "selling the war to the American public", why is there no serious noise being made?
It seems to me that if a successful US President, such as Bill Clinton, can be impeached for lying about a sexual liaison in the American White House, how can the bringing on of a war that has killed and wounded thousands of Americans and innocent Iraqis; that has decimated the US Military's readiness capabilities; that has and continues to cost Trillions of dollars; why is this NOT grounds for asking that someone, or some "ones", take full responsibility?
After President Bill Clinton was elected to his first term of office, he decided to stop all of the inquiries and investigations that were occurring at the time regarding the Iraq-Contra affair. This event had initially occurred in Ronald Reagan's final term as president. I did not agree with that decision then, and I am hoping that if Barack Obama is elected, he will not do something similar regarding the start of an unnecessary, premptive war. I also hope that eventually, the appropriate individuals are investigated and held responsible for a preemptive strike on a country that posed no real threat to America and for the deaths of the brave American military personnel and other innocent people that have died or were wounded in Iraq.
During his election campaign, Obama has said that if elected, he would pursue this issue of invading Iraq. If this investigation does not eventually occur, then the foundation of the reasons for this country's greatness that have stood for the last 200 plus years will count as meaningless. And if this investigation does not occur, I will no longer be able to state that I believe that the United States of America is a fair and just country.
I am praying that it doesn't come to that end.
After years of delays, (brought on by the Senate Republicans), the Senate Select Committee Report on the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq has finally been published. It took 5 years of squabbling, but finally the 170 page detailed report, endorsed by both Democrats and Republicans, concluded that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their aides "built a public case for war against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq's weapons programs and Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda."
This is the most comprehensive effort to date that has determined that the administration's policy makers systematically painted a more dire picture about Iraq than could be justified by the available intelligence. The report specifically accuses Bush, Cheney and other top Republican Administration officials for overstating the Iraqi threat in the emotional aftermath of the attacks of 9/11. These findings were endorsed by both Democratic and the Republican committee members.
The Chairman of the intelligence panel, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, (D-West Virginia), stated that; "The president and his advisers undertook a relentless public campaign in the aftermath of the attacks (of 9/11) to use the war against Al Qaeda as a justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein."
As to be expected, Dana Perino, the current White House spokesperson, called the report a "selective view" and once again said that the Bush Administration made its decisions to go to war based on the same, "faulty intelligence that was given at the time, to both the administration and the Congress by foreign intelligence services".
What continues to amaze me over the past few years is why is no one in authority from either party asking that the president and his administration take responsibility for what may eventually be determined as the worst debacle in the history of the greatest nation on earth. In the first place, the United States has multiple intelligence resources that are considered among the best and the most modern intelligence agencies in the world. And the president's people now have the gall to blame their decisions on "faulty intelligence from foreign intelligence services"...?
This latest bipartisan report admits that the public statements from Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and the other senior officials regarding Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs were "substantiated" by the best estimates at the time. However, the report also found that the administration did not reflect the intelligence agencies "uncertainties" about the disputes of the intelligence among the agencies themselves. The report and Senator Rockefeller have criticized the president and the vice president for mistakenly linking Iraq to Al Qaeda and for unjustifiably raising the possibility that Saddam would supply Al Qaeda with unconventional weapons of mass destruction (WMD's). Senator Rockefeller also stated that at the time, the administration was; "Representing to the American people that the two (parties in Iraq) had an operational partnership and posed a single, indistinguishable threat (that) was fundamentally misleading and (had) led the U.S. to war on false premises."
The report goes on to state that in September 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, then the U.S. defense secretary, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, "the Iraq problem cannot be solved by air strikes alone" because Iraqi chemical and biological weapons were so deeply buried that they could not be penetrated by American bombs. Two months later however, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) wrote an assessment for Mr. Rumsfeld that concluded that the Iraqi underground weapons facilities were "vulnerable to conventional, precision guided, penetrating munitions because they were not deeply buried". It is also interesting that it has been confirmed by Senator Ron Wyden of the intelligence committee that somehow the Congress and the Senate Armed Services Committee were never informed of this report from the NIC.
Now, with this information, and with the recent "tell all" book from the former White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, that also supports that the Bush Administration was "selling the war to the American public", why is there no serious noise being made?
It seems to me that if a successful US President, such as Bill Clinton, can be impeached for lying about a sexual liaison in the American White House, how can the bringing on of a war that has killed and wounded thousands of Americans and innocent Iraqis; that has decimated the US Military's readiness capabilities; that has and continues to cost Trillions of dollars; why is this NOT grounds for asking that someone, or some "ones", take full responsibility?
After President Bill Clinton was elected to his first term of office, he decided to stop all of the inquiries and investigations that were occurring at the time regarding the Iraq-Contra affair. This event had initially occurred in Ronald Reagan's final term as president. I did not agree with that decision then, and I am hoping that if Barack Obama is elected, he will not do something similar regarding the start of an unnecessary, premptive war. I also hope that eventually, the appropriate individuals are investigated and held responsible for a preemptive strike on a country that posed no real threat to America and for the deaths of the brave American military personnel and other innocent people that have died or were wounded in Iraq.
During his election campaign, Obama has said that if elected, he would pursue this issue of invading Iraq. If this investigation does not eventually occur, then the foundation of the reasons for this country's greatness that have stood for the last 200 plus years will count as meaningless. And if this investigation does not occur, I will no longer be able to state that I believe that the United States of America is a fair and just country.
I am praying that it doesn't come to that end.
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