Washington, DC – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) today applauded the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 512-page report on the misleading and inaccurate pre-war intelligence on Iraq. The “scathing” report, in the words of one news outlet, reports how the U.S. intelligence agencies manipulated and manufactured intelligence to claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war against Iraq.  The report calls claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction wrong and based on overstated Central Intelligence Agency analyses.

On the day of the report, the number of American deaths in Iraq climbed over the 1000-person mark. Untold thousands of Iraqis and other internationals have also been killed.

“Once again, we get a report that calls the Bush Administration’s intelligence inaccurate and wrong,” said Lee. “We had other options. United Nations inspectors in Iraq were doing their job, and they should have been allowed to continue doing their work.”

In opposition to President Bush’s authorization to go into Iraq, Lee offered a resolution (H.AMDT.608 to H.J.RES.114) that would have allowed the UN inspectors to remain in Iraq. Even under the enormous pressure leveled by the Bush Administration, who questioned opponents’ patriotism, 72 Members of Congress voted for the resolution.

“Knowing what we know now about this misleading intelligence, if we held another vote on my resolution, I feel sure that we would get many, many more votes,” said Lee.

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