Dems 'Distort' Iraqi Intel, Leading GOP Senator Says
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
June 10, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - Though sold as new evidence that the Bush administration misled the public about pre-Iraq war intelligence, the "Phase II" report released late last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is a partisan election year ploy, said the top Republican on the committee.

"The Democratic staff who authored the report twisted policy-maker statements, and cherry-picked intelligence in order to reach their misleading conclusions," said Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.) in a conference call with reporters Monday. "It was drafted by partisan Democratic staff to distort intelligence for the obvious political purpose for use in the 2008 elections."

The "Phase II" report on prewar intelligence pointed to several speeches between October 2002 and March 2003 by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then juxtaposed those speeches with intelligence reports. The report in general paints a picture of misrepresented or hyped intelligence in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

The Democratic majority on the committee says administration officials were wrong in telling the public the following: that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was linked to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and al-Qaeda; that Iraq would give terrorist groups chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons; and that Iraq was developing drone aircraft to spread chemical or biological agents over the United States. None of those claims was proven by intelligence, the report states.

The previous Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report from 2004, approved unanimously by committee members, determined that flawed intelligence rather than intentional deception led to policy decisions regarding Iraq.

The latest report, Bond said, excluded the input of minority Republicans.

"I find it ironic that Democrats would knowingly distort and misrepresent the committee's findings in the intelligence in an effort to prove that the administration distorted or mischaracterized intelligence," said Bond. "It's the political gamesmanship that should be beneath the Senate intelligence committee."

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), in a statement, said the Bush administration was "fixated" on Iraq.

"Top administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11," Rockefeller said. "Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses. There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But there is a difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate."

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was quoted by the Associated Press last week as saying, "We had the intelligence that we had, fully vetted, but it was wrong. And we certainly regret that."

Bond accused Committee Chairman Rockefeller of using the "old discredited view" that the administration pressured intelligence analysts, while charging that committee Democrats ignored the comments of congressional Democrats who supported the war.

"It's telling that the Democrats chose to exclude any of their own statements based on the same intelligence available to administration officials in the final report," Bond said.

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