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Democrats renew calls for probe over flawed Iraq intelligence
Tue Jul 8, 6:25 PM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!



WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats renewed their calls for a wide-ranging
congressional probe into US intelligence lapses, after the White House
backpedaled on its claim that Iraq (news - web sites) tried to obtain
nuclear materials from Africa.

"It's a recognition that we were provided faulty information," said Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle.


"And I think it's all the more reason why a full investigation of all of the
facts surrounding this situation be undertaken -- the sooner the better," he
said.


Limited reviews of past intelligence are currently underway in both the
House of Representatives and the Senate, but Democrats have said a broader
bipartisan investigation is needed to determine whether the White House
manipulated pre-war intelligence on Iraq's weapons program -- a move
Republicans have blocked so far.


"Bipartisan investigations of this kind have been done in the past, to great
success. Now is the time to do one in this case," the South Dakota Democrat
said.


"It ought to be the subject of careful scrutiny ... with regard to what it
was we knew, what actions were taken, what statements were correct and which
ones were incorrect. The sooner we can acquire that information, the better
for the country," Daschle added.


The Bush administration backed away from assertions that Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein (news - web sites) tried to purchase "yellow cake" uranium from
Africa to kickstart Iraq's idled nuclear weapons program. Bush included the
allegation in his State of the Union speech in January, but the White House
said Monday it regretted having done so.


Michigan Senator Carl Levin, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee,
said the White House admission raised more questions than they answered.


"The reported White House statements only reinforce the importance of an
inquiry into why the information about the bogus uranium sales didn't reach
the policymakers during 2002 and why, as late as the president's State of
the Union address in January 2003, our policymakers were still using
information which the intelligence community knew was almost certainly
false."


Levin, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites),
recently initiated his own investigation into US intelligence on Iraq's
alleged weapons of mass destruction program, after the committee's chairman,
Republican Senator John Warner, declined to initiate a probe.


Until now Democrats have generally tread gently in requesting a full-fledged
bipartisan investigation, fearing a public backlash should weapons of mass
destruction actually turn up in Iraq.


They pulled no punches on Tuesday however, in faulting the White House for
relying on the faked intelligence -- or for waiting so long to acknowledge
the fraud.


"The quality of that intelligence has been known ... from the very
beginning," Jay Rockefeller, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said. "It was all discredited, early and often."


The revelation speaks to other potential intelligence lapses, Rockefeller
said, but problems with the particular information on Iraq-Niger ties "rates
high because it was so patently false," said Rockefeller.


"It had been so patently a forgery. It was debunked everywhere."


And Senator Dianne Feinstein said the overall quality of US intelligence has
been called into question.


"There were many of us that voted for use of force based on what we learned
in intelligence and other areas," she said. "The fact that the yellow cake
uranium from Niger was a forgery demonstrates a real problem with bogus
intelligence."



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"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I'm the dictator." - GW Bush 12/18/2000.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

"Feels Good!"
---George W. Bush on the Brink of Declaring War on Iraq.