The White House may be right about there not being anything particularly new in the report on pre-Iraq war intelligence released today by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. But neither did the report seem to offer anything particularly good for the Bush administration.
No link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. No link between Saddam and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. And no truth to the 2002 CIA report that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program and had biological weapons and mobile weapons labs.
As Roberts said, it has long been known that prewar assessments of Iraq "were a tragic intelligence failure." But it’s disturbing that so many, including Roberts, seem to want to turn this crucial national security probe into something good for their political side.
As the country waits for the last part of the committee’s "Phase 2" report, it can hope that members of Congress don’t miss the point of all this scrutiny of the past: to try to ensure that the nation never again starts a pre-emptive war based on bad information.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
President Bush’s proposal this week to try terror suspects in military tribunals would omit civil rights usually found even in military courts such as the defendant’s right to access all evidence against him and the ban on coerced testimony.
But the Pentagon’s top military lawyers told a House panel this week that the plan could violate treaty requirements and make U.S. troops vulnerable.
"What we do and how we treat these individuals can, in the future, have a direct impact on our service men and women overseas," noted Brig. Gen. James Walker, staff judge advocate for the Marine Corps.
Some top GOP lawmakers, such as Sens. John McCain and John Warner, also are worried that the plan goes too far — but they’re being pressured by the White House to sign on within 24 hours.
By ending the ban on coerced testimony, Bush is hoping to get around the fact that these top suspects have been subjected to "alternative" interrogations (read "torture"), which would render their testimony inadmissible in most courts.
The administration has created a very complicated and messy legal situation for itself by handling the detainees under such loose guidelines. Now Bush expects a quick resolution?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Here’s news that isn’t: Members of Congress sometimes fudge the facts for the sake of argument. A study by political scientists from Temple University and the University of British Columbia of three defining debates — welfare reform in 1995-96, the estate tax in 1999-2000 and telecommunications deregulation in 1996 — concluded that the claims made in only 11 of 43 debates were largely substantiated by the facts. The study found that Republicans’ abuse of the truth was worse than that of Democrats, especially in the welfare and tax debates — something researchers attributed to the GOP being in the majority. And “instead of using ‘flatly lying,’ we prefer ‘flatly incorrect’ or ‘flatly inaccurate,’” researcher Gary Mucciaroni told the Washington Post.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Though the strange effort by Senate Democrats to try to get a “no-confidence” vote on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fizzled out, the questions of why this Teflon Don remains in office will continue. Could he be trying to make more history than he already has in the job? The Kansas City Star notes that Rumsfeld holds the titles for both the youngest secretary of defense — he was 43 when he had the job in 1975 — and the oldest, because he’s now 74. And if he makes it to the end of the year, he will edge out Robert McNamara as the nation’s longest-serving defense secretary.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The war on terror and his duties as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee have Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., in a serious mood these days. But his winning streak as the Washingtonian’s “Funniest Senator” continued in the magazine’s annual poll of Capitol Hill staffers. How did his fourth win make him feel? “I was lobbying for the ‘hottie of the year’ vote but I can’t even get to lukewarm,” Roberts joked, right on cue. The senators dominating that category were John Thune, R-S.D.; Barack Obama, D-Ill.; and Evan Bayh, D-Ind.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Because it’s an election year, the annual state celebration that runs today through Sept. 17 in Hutchinson will feature not just the usual big vegetables, chain saw art, pig races, midway rides and grandstand shows but also the first gubernatorial debate of the fall. Democrat Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and GOP nominee Jim Barnett will face off at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Farm Bureau Arena.
Beyond politics, the Kansas State Fair continues to wrestle with how to be true to its traditions yet attract crowds in a time of TiVo. Last year’s 324,705 attendance was the lowest in 15 years excepting the 2001 fair, which coincided with the terrorist attacks. Lower gas prices and better marketing may help this year, along with more and better prizes. Still, for many Kansans, the best reason to visit the fair is its treasured place in our memories — something well worth passing on to the next generation.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
