GOP Rejects Wider Intelligence Probe By Helen Dewar and Peter Slevin Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, June 12, 2003; Page A27
Congressional Republicans yesterday spurned Democrats' demands for a full-blown probe into whether the Bush administration manipulated prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs, saying Congress's current oversight operations will suffice.
Key Democrats called the GOP plan "entirely inadequate" and accused the administration of "hyping" intelligence data, as the debate over Iraqi weapons of mass destruction -- which until now has focused on the White House, CIA and State Department -- found full voice in Congress.
At a news conference that appeared aimed at quelling mounting Democratic criticism, Senate intelligence committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said the committee continues to review intelligence documents on weapons and plans to focus on them in closed-door hearings starting next week.
"We are going to complete a very thorough review of all the documentation" supplied by intelligence agencies, he said. "It seems sensible to do that kind of homework before you talk about a formal investigation of this or that or the other thing."
Roberts said some of the criticism of intelligence operations is politically inspired. "I will not allow the committee to be politicized or to be used as an unwitting tool for any political strategist," he said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) said his panel has been holding hearings and reviewing evidence for some time. He joined Roberts and House intelligence committee Chairman Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) in rejecting a broader probe at this time.
Some leading Democrats have demanded an aggressive inquiry to determine whether the intelligence cited by the administration to build the case for war against Iraq may have been inaccurate or skewed to serve administration interests. In the months leading to the March invasion of Iraq, President Bush repeatedly said Saddam Hussein's government had significant chemical and biological weapons capabilities that threatened the United States.
Pressure for a congressional probe has been fueled by the inability to find chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or manufacturing facilities in Iraq and by allegations from some intelligence analysts that they felt pressure from the administration to tailor their assessments to fit official policy.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, said the GOP plan to limit the inquiry to closed hearings and administration-supplied intelligence documents is "entirely inadequate and slow-paced." Committees should be able to request additional documents, interview officials, hold open hearings and report their findings, he said.
"Iraqi WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda were the primary justification offered for the war in Iraq," Rockefeller said. "Even while the search for WMD continues, the American people need and want to know whether our government was accurate and forthcoming in its prewar assessments."
Rockefeller and Roberts said they are seeking a bipartisan agreement on how to proceed.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the Bush administration "hyped" its intelligence on WMD to build public support for a war to overthrow Hussein. He said the practice threatens U.S. credibility in dealing with weapons threats in Iran and North Korea and called for a "big push" to learn how the administration handled what it knew.
"They took a truth and they embellished it," Biden told reporters. "What I'm accusing them of doing is hyping it. They created a false sense of urgency." He said the administration presented "a questionable and hard-to-sustain tie with terrorist organizations" and exaggerated Iraq's capacity to use illegal weapons against U.S. troops. He said the administration also exaggerated how close the Iraqis were to building nuclear weapons.
Roberts, the GOP chairman, said an inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks faulted intelligence agencies for "failing to put together a picture that seemed all too obvious after the fact." Now, he said, "there seems to be a campaign afoot by some to criticize the intelligence community and the president for . . . .putting together a picture that seemed all too obvious before the fact."
Several Democrats said the committees are relying on documents volunteered by the intelligence agencies, but Roberts said the intelligence panel is seeking all relevant information.
Roberts, Warner and Goss said they have not heard from any intelligence officials complaining of undue influence on their work on Iraqi weapons. All three said the Bush administration had not pressured them to avoid a public inquiry.
Warner said he has seen no evidence of tampering with intelligence information. "The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that anyone in this administration has hyped or cooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose," he said.
Meanwhile, former U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said U.S. officials pressured him to use stronger language when reporting on Iraq's alleged weapons programs before the war. In an interview published yesterday in London's the Guardian newspaper, he said: "By and large my relations with the U.S. were good. But toward the end the administration leaned on us."