|
|||||||||
Democratic Caucus's Senate Journal
June 5, 2008 Senate Intelligence Committee Unveils Final Phase II Reports On Prewar Iraq IntelligenceThe Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, and a bipartisan majority of the Committee (10-5), today unveiled the final two sections of its Phase II report on prewar intelligence. The first report details Administration prewar statements that, on numerous occasions, misrepresented the intelligence and the threat from Iraq. The second report details inappropriate, sensitive intelligence activities conducted by the DoD’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department. Senator Rockefeller said:
The Committee’s report cites several conclusions in which the Administration’s public statements were NOT supported by the intelligence. They include:
Additionally, the Committee issued a report onthe Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy(pdf). The report found that the clandestine meetings between Pentagon officials and Iranians in Rome and Paris were inappropriate and mishandled from beginning to end. Deputy National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz failed to keep the Intelligence Community and the State Department appropriately informed about the meetings. The involvement of Manucher Ghobanifer and Michael Ledeen in the meetings was inappropriate. Potentially important information collected during the meetings was withheld from intelligence agencies by Pentagon officials. Finally, senior Defense Department officials cut short internal investigations of the meetings and failed to implement the recommendations of their own counterintelligence experts. Today’s reports are the culmination of efforts that began in March 2003, when, as Vice Chairman, Senator Rockefeller initially requested an investigation into the origin of the fraudulent Niger documents. In June 2003, he was joined by all Democrats on the Committee in pushing for a full investigation into prewar intelligence, which was eventually expanded by the Committee in February 2004 to include the five phase II tasks. The Committee released its first report on July 9, 2004, which focused primarily on the Intelligence Community’s prewar assessments of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism. Those findings helped lay the foundation for some of the intelligence reforms enacted into law in late 2004. In September 2006, the Committee completed and publicly released two sections of Phase II: The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress; and Postwar Findings About Iraq’s WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments. In May 2007, the Committee released the third section of Phase II: Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq. Separately, in early 2007, the Pentagon Inspector General released its own report on the intelligence activities conducted by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and also concluded that those activities were inappropriate.
|
December 12, 2008:
The Senate stands in recess for pro forma sessions only, with no business conducted on the following days and times: Friday, December 12 at 10:00 a.m.; Tuesday, December 16 at 11:00 a.m.; Friday, December 19 at 10:00 a.m.; Tuesday, December 23 at 11:00 a.m.; Friday, December 26 at 11:00 a.m.; Tuesday, December 30 at 10:30 a.m.; and Friday, January 2 at 10:00 a.m. At the close of the pro forma Session on January 2, 2009, the Senate will stand adjourned sine die.
|
||||||||