SENATE PASSES KENNEDY’S MEASURE TO REQUIRE NEW INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT IN IRAQ

KENNEDY: WE NEED HONEST ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL WAR

August 3, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Washington, DC: Today, the United States Senate unanimously passed Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s amendment requiring the Director of National Intelligence to task the intelligence community to prepare a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. The last time the NIE was updated was in July 2004, yet much has changed in the security, economy and political stability of Iraq in the last two years. Reports from the Departments of Defense and State and statements from Administration officials on security and stability in Iraq have been troublingly inadequate in assisting Congress with measuring the success of our efforts in Iraq and the safety of our troops, and it is essential to have an up-to-date, objective assessment of Iraq from the intelligence community. The amendment was cosponsored by Senators Harry Reid, Joe Biden, Carl Levin, Jack Reed, Jay Rockefeller, and Frank Lautenberg.

“Avoiding civil war is our greatest challenge and highest priority in Iraq. The ominous sectarian violence is obviously worsening. For the sake of our troops in Iraq and for the sake of the nation, we need a new, thorough and honest assessment by the intelligence community of the prospects for controlling this violence and preventing civil war,” Senator Kennedy said.

Below is a summary of the measure:

SUMMARY OF KENNEDY AMENDMENT REQUIRING A NEW
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE ON IRAQ

The Director of National Intelligence will prepare a new National Intelligence Estimate on the prospects for security and stability in Iraq. The last National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq was prepared in July 2004.

The new National Intelligence Estimate will include:

• The prospects for controlling severe sectarian violence that could lead to civil war.

• The prospects for Iraq’s ethnic, religious and tribal divisions.

• An assessment of whether Iraq is succeeding in standing up effective security forces, including an assessment of the extent to which militias are providing security in Iraq and the extent to which the Government of Iraq has developed and implemented a credible plan to disarm and demobilize and reintegrate militias into government security forces, and is working to obtain a political commitment from political parties to ban militias.

• An assessment of whether Iraq is succeeding in creating a stable and effective unity government, and the likelihood that the government will address the concerns of the Sunni community.

• The prospects for economic reconstruction and the impact that will have on security and stability.

The National Intelligence Estimate will be provided to Congress not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of the Act. If the Director of National Intelligence is unable to submit the National Intelligence Estimate by that date, he will submit to Congress not later than that date a report setting forth the reasons for being unable to do so and the date on which such National Intelligence Estimate will be provided.

The National Intelligence Estimate is to be submitted to Congress in a classified form, except that, consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and methods, an unclassified summary of key judgments shall also be submitted.

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