FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE - (7/3/03)

The following action items from the Friends Committee on National
Legislation (FCNL) focus on federal policy issues currently before
Congress or the Administration.

TOPIC: SUPPORT CONGRESSIONAL CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INTELLIGENCE
COMMISSION

SUPPORT CONGRESSIONAL CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INTELLIGENCE COMMISSION: On
June 26, Rep. Henry Waxman (CA) introduced HR 2625 (click here to view
the bill <http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/waxman_intel.pdf>), a bill that would
establish an open, bi-partisan commission to investigate pre-war
intelligence about Iraq's proscribed weapons programs. Waxman was joined
by 24 co-sponsors, all of whom voted last October to authorize the U.S.
military invasion of Iraq. Now eight weeks of post-combat searches by
the U.S. and UK have revealed no evidence of proscribed weapons in Iraq,
and several intelligence claims specifically cited by the Administration
to justify war have been discredited. Concern over the quality and
representation of intelligence is growing among members of Congress, and
closed-door intelligence committee hearings are now in their third week.
Waxman and his supporters in the House believe that a full, open
investigation is needed to ensure the integrity of the U.S. intelligence
program and to restore government credibility with the U.S. public and
the international community.

Waxman's bill calls for the President and congressional leadership to
appoint a 10 person independent commission. Members of the commission
would conduct a comprehensive 18 month investigation into the way
intelligence on Iraq was collected and processed, and how it was
represented to the U.S. public and the international community. The
commission would then report its findings to Congress and the President,
along with recommendations for any corrective measures that were agreed
to by a majority of commission members.

ACTION: Write to your representative and urge her or him to co-sponsor
HR 2625 and call for the establishment of an independent, public
commission to investigate intelligence about Iraq. With such serious
questions being raised about the quality of U.S. intelligence, a
bi-partisan commission is needed to address the public's concerns.
Congressional action must be taken before election year politics take
command of the attention of Congress. The credibility and reliability
of our government's statements and the future of U.S. foreign policy
would be served by a thorough review of the justifications used by the
Administration for its "preemptive" war on Iraq.

WRITING TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IS EASY: Start with the sample letter
posted in our Legislative Action Center, personalize the language, then
email or fax your message directly from our site. You can also print it
out and mail it. To view the sample letter, click on the link below,
then enter your zip code and click <Go> in the <Take Action Now> box.
Here is the link:
<http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=2743981>.

BACKGROUND: In the months leading up to military invasion of Iraq, the
Administration made strong claims, based on classified intelligence,
that Iraq was clearly in possession of weapons of mass destruction and
was developing its nuclear weapons program. The President said before
the General Assembly of the United Nations last September that ". .
..right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used
for the production of biological weapons . . . Iraq has made several
attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for
a nuclear weapon." In his State of the Union Address in January of
2003, President Bush stated, "The British government has learned that
Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa." In the early days of the war, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld
said that "[w]e have seen intelligence over many months that [the
Iraqis] have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have
dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at
least, the command and control arrangements have been established"
(3/24/03, Face the Nation).

Further investigation has shown these and other such claims were based
on ambiguous or, in the case of the alleged uranium trade with Niger,
fabricated information. Furthermore, the results of a recent British
investigation indicate that two buried vans which the Administration
described as potential mobile germ warfare labs were most likely used
for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons, as Iraqi
officials originally claimed (UK Guardian,
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,977916,00.html>).
As these revelations continue, public concern over the quality of U.S.
intelligence, and the integrity with which it was reported to the
public, is mounting. According to a recent poll by the Program on
International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), a majority of Americans believe
that the U.S. government was stretching the truth (52%) or presenting
evidence they knew was false (10%) in its arguments for going to war
with Iraq. Sixty-three percent believe that Congress should investigate
the intelligence agencies' performance in providing intelligence on
whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (PIPA poll,
<http://www.pipa.org/>). In the face of this level of public
skepticism, a full reckoning on questions of U.S. intelligence and its
use by officials is needed.

Congress has been heeding the call for investigations, and closed-door
hearings are now being carried out by the House and Senate intelligence
committees. However, some committee members are concerned that the time
and resources available to committee staff are not sufficient to carry
out the needed level of investigation.

"We are inadequately staffed," said Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), a member of
the Senate intelligence committee. "The investigation is not likely to
be successful. We need good professional staff to give [us] a
conclusion. I can't go through boxes and boxes of this data" (The Hill,
<http://www.thehill.com/news/070203/inquiry.aspx>).

In order to meet the enormous task of analyzing the sources and
conclusions drawn from years of intelligence on Iraq, an independent,
fully-staffed commission is needed. The U.S. public deserves to know the
truth. The credibility of the U.S. government, the conscience of the
country, and the future of U.S. policy depend on it.

For further information, see Col. Dan Smith's Ethics in Public Service:
Questions About Iraq, Intelligence, and Integrity" at
<http://www.fcnl.org/issues/int/sup/iraq_smith_intelligence.htm>.

FCNL HAS A NEW (TEMPORARY) HOME! On Monday, June 30, the FCNL office
moved to its temporary location in downtown Washington. Over the next
9-12 months FCNL's historic residence on Capitol Hill will be renovated
into a new, handicap-accessible and environmentally friendly building.
In the meantime, our mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and emails
will all remain the same.

To find out more about our reconstruction plans, visit
<http://www.fcnl.org/building/campaign_sum.htm>. You can see a sketch of
the new building, find out about our plan to use "green architecture,"
which we hope will become a model for environmentally-friendly design on
Capitol Hill, and see how close we have come to reaching our Capital
Campaign goals! If you would like to make a contribution to the Capital
Campaign to support the reconstruction of FCNL's office, click here:
<http://www.fcnl.org/building/make_gift.htm>.

Order WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER Bumper Stickers and Yard Signs!
* Online: Here are the links for the order forms.
Bumper stickers: <http://www.fcnl.org/iraq_bumstker_info.php>
Yard signs: <http://www.fcnl.org/iraq_yardsign_info.php>
* Email: Send a message to <field@fcnl.org> with your name, complete
mailing address, and the number of bumper stickers or yard signs needed.
* Phone: Call Valerie Fox at 800-630-1330, ext. 142 or leave a message
with mailing information and number of stickers or signs requested.
FCNL will not rent, sell, or trade your name to any other organization.
We appreciate contributions for bulk orders of bumper stickers. The
suggested donation for peace signs is $5 each.
If you have comments or questions regarding this message or other
issues, please contact FCNL.

CONTACTING LEGISLATORS

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Sen. ________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Rep. ________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Information on your members is available on FCNL's web site:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/official.../directory.dbq

CONTACTING THE ADMINISTRATION

White House Comment Desk: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
E-MAIL: president@whitehouse.gov
WEB PAGE: http://www.whitehouse.gov

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
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We seek a world free of war and the threat of war
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