Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been accused by Democrats of protecting the White House by delaying his committee’s long-promised report on pre-war intelligence in Iraq. And with good reason.
So it’s good to hear that the committee is finally on the verge of releasing at least part of the report, and that Roberts is challenging the Bush administration’s refusal to declassify some of the report’s harsh findings.
See our opinion pages today for an op-ed piece from Roberts on the investigation and for our editorial urging Roberts to keep pushing for a full release of the findings.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- ProudMan on Too many exemptions
- ANTI on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/23
- SolDevVB on Open thread 11/23
- donndublin on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/23
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/23
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/23
32 Comments
Standing up to his masters? I doubt it. This is just a joke to show the puppets that the rank and file GOP minions aren’t a bunch of yes men. Well if patty really felt as strongly as he claims then why was the report delayed so long? Why did it take him so long to grow a pair of balls? This is a show that the puppets will eat up.
This really does need to be settled one way or the other. Some thing that is really getting me is the lazar-fare attitude that was referenced in the editorial: ” Some argue that the reports are irrelevant and academic now — we’re in Iraq, bogged down in a messy occupation. Nothing in the reports, they say, is likely to change that reality‚”.I have noticed many not just about this issue but in general have taken the “No use crying over spilled milk” overboard. That once something happens there is no use getting upset or concerned over it. I have come across a few people that I believe if their child was murdered they would just shrug and say “Sad…Oh well!”.
Sorry back to topic, this report is needed to answer the question as to whether this country’s President has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. If so there would be a real need to impeach, what would an impeachment do? It would show any others that would think that they could take control of this country and use it as they will that we the American people will not stand for the corruption of our government. It would reassure the American people that this is still a democracy that is worth defending. It would show the world and even our enemies, that we hold some truths above common convenience. Would it be easier to ignore that this country may have violated international laws and violated even our most sacred core principals. Yes it would, but then we would have stopped being the best country in the world. One that is a shining light to the rest and an example to inspire and follow.
If this report will exonerate the administration of wrong doing, then so be it. It will not stop all the conspiracy theories. But push them back into the realm of fantasy where most conspiracy theories come from. Make no mistake either way some will question its truthfulness, the extreme left will say there is a cover up. Or the extreme right will say it is partisan politics and liberal spin. But the subject will be done and we can start to rebuild to be come one people again.
Everyone has their own personal bets as to what the truth is, but the truth is wholly needed in this matter.
I expect a white-wash. Funny how they plan to release the report just before an election.
Let me summarize it for you. (I haven’t read it yet.)
“Mistakes were made in the accuracy and interpretation of pre-war intelligence.
“However, the Bush administration was just acting on the information they got.
“Nothing to see here. Move along.”
*****
The real facts are that W. wanted to overthrow Saddam and control the oilfields since before he got elected.
He even said so in an debate during the Republican primaries–”If I knew Saddam had WMD’s, I’d take him out.”
9-11 was a pretext to allow the neo-cons to do what they wanted. The leaked Downing Street memo tells you what you need to know–”the intelligence and facts were being fixed [by the US] around the policy” of removing Saddam Hussein from power.
The Defence Secretary said that the US had already begun “spikes of activity” to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.The Foreign Secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_street_memo
*****
This shows that no only was intelligence manipulated to “sex up” the case for war, but that the Bush administration consciously used the threat of war to help it win in the midterm elections that year.
Worst. President. Possible.
SD,Isn’t it amazing how a document like the Downing Street Memo got swept under the rug?
With the right results in November, maybe that, along with many other issues, will get closer examination.
That report isn’t going to come out untill after the election.
And it isn’t going to say anything. Pat had how many years to write a report to say nothing?
Although I would be most impressed if Patty grew a pair and said anything negative about his masters.
I see “k,” the poster above, represents a left wing think tank in Pennsylvania/Washington D.C. so his comments can be disregarded as an attempt to confuse and misinform the EAGLE’s WE Blog readers.
The best way to understand what is going on is to actually read Kansas Senator Pat Roberts’ letter on this mornings EAGLE editorial page plus Randy Scholfield’s editorial, “Roberts needs to keep up demands.”
I know there are many who will derive the opposite meaning from these pieces of information. There are also some who say “red” when you say “blue” and “down” when you say “up.”
As I understand the situation, Senator Roberts is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It contains Democrats and Republicans, many who are posturing to use this report for their own political agendas. This important report has potential to change political fortunes of many congressional members and those they support.
I believe Senator Pat Roberts is striving to issue a report that furnishes the public as much information possible. He is trying to avoid blanking out major parts of the report — “redacting” as they call it. But he is receiving flak from the White House as well as key Democrats on the committee so its a bucking horse U.S. Senator Pat Roberts from Dodge City, Kansas, is riding here.
I believe Senator Roberts is tough and independent enough to do his best to issue a meaningful report to the American public whether before or, perhaps unfortunately, after the coming November elections.
Nothing going on here but a great big stall for damage control. Bad thing is even after the elections, this will be as XXX said, a whitewash
Unfortunately JWink I do not share your opinion of Roberts. It is my belief that he is just another administration stooge.
JWink–
Sen. Roberts is “receiving flak from the White House.”
Well, excuuuse me!
Sen. Roberts didn’t get elected by George W. Bush . . . he doesn’t represent the people of 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.
He’s supposed to be looking out for — I know this will come as a shock to you, dittohead — WE, THE PEOPLE.
He’s already proven that he’s a shill for Bush and too craven to do his job. Otherwise we would have had the report BEFORE the 2004 election when it could have educated the voters on an important issue.
He stalled it then and he’s stalling now because any true report will show W. is a liar who sent in our troops based on a pack of lies.
“As the bodies pile up, so the Israeli media has begun to turn, accusing the military of lacking the proper equipment, training and intelligence to fight a guerrilla war in Lebanon. Israel’s Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, on a tour of the front lines, was confronted by troubled reserve soldiers who told him they lacked proper equipment and training.”
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1838437,00.html
Silence Dogood: Sorry, you are misinformed. Senator Roberts is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, not dictator of the committee. The committee is made up of powerful Democrats and Republicans. Roberts is in effect riding a bucking broncho over which he has only partial control.
Are you another Pennsylvania left wing think tank participant?
Pat Roberts will do what will benefit Pat Roberts – how else has he stayed in power so long? He is no different than the rest of the politicians. And, even if he did tell the truth – would that really change anyone’s mind? I don’t think so. The country is more divided now than it ever was – thanks to the “Great Uniter”.
And NO I am not a left-wing think tank nut!
Silence Dogood: The White House is located at 1600 Pennsylania Avenue. I don’t know who the people are at 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue — a convenience store maybe?
Roberts “speaking up” about White House intransigence is about as meaningful as Bush asking Israel to “show restraint” as they bomb ambulances, UN posts, and food warehouses.
Sentor Brownnose needs to say something to make it look like he cares but that is it.
No, I’m not even a partisan precinct captain like you, JWink. Didn’t you call yourself a “fiscal conservative” one time?
Hahahahaha . . . check the national debt, my friend, check it out.
But thanks for the correction on the address of the WH.
How could I have forgotten this gem from Capital Hill Blue–
DEATH WATCH AT 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE
By DOUG THOMPSONOct 21, 2005, 08:12
For all practical purposes, governing the nation has stopped at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as aides deal with an increasingly despondent President, mounting scandals and defecting dissidents from the Ship of State.
White House insiders say George W. Bush’s mood swings have increased to the point where meetings with the President must be cancelled, schedules shifted and plans changed to keep a bitter, distracted leader from the public eye.
“He’s like a zombie some days, walking around in a trance,” says one aide who, for obvious reasons, asks not to be identified. “Other times he launches into angry outbursts, cussing out anybody who gets near him.”
Aides say gallows humor has descended on the White House, where the West Wing is now referred to as “death row” and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, along with Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, are known as “dead men walking,” a reference to the last walk death row inmates take to the execution chamber.
More at link: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7560.shtml
Silence Dugood: I have been very familiar with the national deficit and the ever increasing national debt, now some $9 trillion, since reading about them in the WEEKLY READER as a 10 year old at Central Grade School in Pratt.
Good for you.
So why do you support Republicans?
They blew up the debt under borrow and spend Reagan, did the same thing under Bush I, did it even worse under this pretzeldent.
Clinton era never had a budget surplus.
To be fair! The Bush Administration has a serious budget deficit.
“The Clinton administration reported a surplus of $559 billion in its final four budget years. The audited numbers showed a deficit of $484 billion. ”
On Bush Administration:
The set the government promotes to the public has a healthier bottom line: a $318 billion deficit in 2005.
The set the government doesn’t talk about is the audited financial statement produced by the government’s accountants following standard accounting rules. It reports a more ominous financial picture: a $760 billion deficit for 2005. If Social Security and Medicare were included — as the board that sets accounting rules is considering — the federal deficit would have been $3.5 trillion.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060803/1a_coverart03.art_dom.htm
Worrying about the budget is so, well, just for the little people.
The shruber did look like he was in a trace when he mashed the chancellor of germany like a frat boy. Did you see the trance like look on his face? He wasnt even there!
Same on his display of manners, grace and civility at the G8 when he was cussin’ and chewin’ with his mouth open and releasing his inner hick. He looked like he was in a trance there. “your in the neighborhood. big country. Yours is a big country too.”
yep. Sounds like trance speak to me.
And they say he has no ties to the pharmacutical industry….
hee hee hee. I wonder if bill frist writes all his prescriptions after a long distance diagnosis from a picture?
heheh.
Roberts has already said he is bush’s senator.
And brownback himself says he is god’s senator.
Isnt it time to ask the question of who is KANSAS’ senator? Who is representing us?
Apparantly neither of our republicans have kansas at the top of their priority list.
Thanks Joe.
Your link proves exactly what I am saying.
Even using the corrected accountant’s figures, W’s deficit is nearly twice what Clinton’s was.
Democrats ARE the fiscally conservative ones.
heheh silence, gives new meaning to the phrase “spending like drunken republican sailors” or “tax and spend republicans” except it is more accurate to say “spend and borrow republicans” ’cause their corporate masters dont want taxes, they want to collect INTEREST on the money the govt borrows.
heheh. Either way, the r’s lost their claim to fiscal responsibility. See what happens when you produce a loop of “Fiscal conservatives gone wild”.
Kinda like preachers kids when they go off to college and are free for the first time. They go wild. R’s have been the same way since they have been in power. They have spent like the very people they hate.
heheh
But of course, it is all CLINTON’s FAULT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And concerning the NSA wire taps,let me just say this:Bill Clinton.
And concerning the outing of Miss Plame,let me just say this:Bill Clinton.
And concerning the outing of Miss Plame,let me just say this:Bill Clinton.
“The real facts are that W. wanted to overthrow Saddam and control the oilfields since before he got elected.”
Before I get started, they revoked my think-tank membership due to a lack of dues payment. Couldn’t afford ‘em any more due to gas prices.
According to Greg Palast (2006) there were two competing interest groups intent upon the removing Sadam. The first group was “Big Oil” as represented by James Baker, III and the second was the “neo-cons”.
Big oil wanted Sadam out because even under “Oil for Food” sanctions he was able to have a “swing” influence on oil prices – sending them up and down sharply. He was a rogue the Saudi’s couldn’t control. Thus he needed to go. The Big Oil group is pragmatic – oil profits trumps ideology for them. They wanted Iraqi oil state owned.
The neo-cons are just the opposite, ideology trumps pragmatism every time. The wanted to sell off small pieces of the Iraq oil reserve and avoid a state-owned system. With the help and design of Grover Norquist, Iraq redevelopment was going to be a free-market miracle. They were going to do in Iraq what they could not do at home. Purposefully, Bremer and friends set it up so that Iraq had no tariff protections.
So what happened in this free-market miracle known as Iraq. After the first year of occupation, the Iraqi unemployment rate was over 60%. Cheap Chinese goods flooded into Iraq and the nascent economy couldn’t keep up.
The many disasters of the neo-cons convinced Cheney that he needed to let the “grown ups” take over and hand selected folks from Baker’s stable were put into positions of power. Cheney, by the way, is a member of BOTH groups.
Likely the competing interests and in-fighting between these two U.S. groups helped foster the complete FUBAR that is Iraq today.
Saudia Arabia has sufficient wealth that they can go one year, at least, without any income from their oil. They have punished producers who produce more than their alloted amounts by flooding the market with oil, which brings the prices down and puts the over-producers out of business or at least teachs them a lesson. This tactic is called the Saudi “punishment”.
The neo-con plan was to bust OPEC with Iraqi oil. This likely would have been a huge disater had then been allowed to try.
The one good thing about today’s high prices is that when oil is over $30 a barrel, the price is high enough to refine the vast reserves of poor quality Venezuela fields. The amount of oil available to Venezuela via these poor quality fields makes the Saudi oil fileds look like a small mud puddle. So, the Saudi’s may ultimately hurt themselves with the current greed.
We need to reduce out use of oil. But, there is more out there than the current prices would suggest. I contend on another thread that we are really not competing with Indians and Chinese for oil like it is claimed. We are just being hosed. Nothing new there from this administration.
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-best-thing-in-the-world-for-big-oil
Excellent post, Stephen–
And check this out:
Report on Prewar Intelligence LaggingInformation Democrats Want Most Might Not Come Out Until After Election
By Dafna LinzerWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, July 30, 2006; Page A07
When angry Democrats briefly shut down the Senate last year to protest the slow pace of a congressional investigation into prewar intelligence on Iraq, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) claimed a rare victory.
Republicans called it a stunt but promised to quickly wrap up the inquiry. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is overseeing the investigation, said his report was near completion and there was no need for the fuss.
That was nine months ago.
The Republican-led committee, which agreed in February 2004 to write the report, has yet to complete its work. Just two of five planned sections of the committee’s findings are fully drafted and ready to be voted on by members, according to Democratic and Republican staffers. Committee sources involved with the report, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they are working hard to complete it. But disputing Roberts, they said they had started almost from scratch in November after Democrats staged their protest.
The section most Democrats have sought, however, is not yet in draft form and might not emerge until after the November election, staffers said. That section will examine the administration’s deliberations over prewar intelligence and whether its public presentation of the threat reflected the evidence senior officials reviewed in private.
More at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900608.html
*****
Roberts is his own man and challenging the president. I’d agree with that if by “own man” you mean shill for the Bush administration and by “challenging” you mean protecting Bush from any well deserved criticism.
Remember, you can’t have a lying coward as President without a lot of lying cowards supporting him.
“We need to reduce ouR use of oil.”
Roberts may just finally be getting the message ” If he doesn’t stand up, he’s going down!
Just like the Libby trial, you can bet your last dollar the damaging part of the report will not come out before the election!