Senate Democrats on Tuesday forced the chamber into a closed-session to discuss the indictment of White House Aide Scooter Libby and the Bush administration’s handling of pre-war intelligence. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., invoked the rarely-used Senate Rule 21 and moved that the Senate go into a closed-door session. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., quickly seconded. The motion does not require a vote but rather sends the senate immediately into a closed-door session. Normal precedent is for the leaders of both parties to consult with one another before beginning a closed-door session and it has not been invoked without mutual consent in 25 years.
According to Sen. Harry Reid:
“The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about — how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence to sell the war in Iraq, and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions.”
Apparently the Libby indictment last Friday did not generate the heat the Democrats thought that it should have, so they’re using the indictment to push forth their argument that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson is a modern-day hero.
Ed Morrissey opines that “the bipartisan report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence … outlines exactly how Wilson’s report in fact bolstered the case that Iraq still wanted to get material for nuclear weapons — and that Wilson had lied about it in leaks to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and then in his own editorial and book. He also lied about how he got his mission to Niger, and has yet to explain how he managed to get that mission and not sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Reid claimed that the Republican majority had reneged on a promise to conduct a thorough inquiry into the use of American intelligence before the war.
Senator John Kerry had strong words to say about the investigation into alleged pre-war intelligence failures:
“For a year and a half, the Republican leadership in Congress has refused again and again to complete Phase II of their investigation into pre-war intelligence failures. All the requests I and other Senators have made of the Intelligence Committee for more information have been pushed aside. The Republican leadership has been complicit in a political cover-up of the decisions that led to war. Nothing could be more serious or more deserving of full public disclosure. The families of our troops deserve the truth, as does every American. Now that one of the chief architects of the war in Iraq has been indicted for related crimes, it is more important than ever to know how intelligence was presented to the Congress.
“The country and the Congress were misled into war. It is deeply troubling that the Republicans in Washington are so afraid to share the truth with the American people. Clearly it will require an independent, outside investigation to get to the bottom of this.”
Not surprisingly, Kerry seems to forget what he said in 2002:
“I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force — if necessary — to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002 | Source
As a matter of fact, belief that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction was universal during the Clinton administration. If Bush lied or misused intelligence, then so did Clinton.
“One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.”
- President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998 | Source
“If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.”
- President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998 | Source
“We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction.”
- Madeline Albright, Feb 1, 1998 | Source
“He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983.”
- Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998 | Source
“[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.”
Letter to President Clinton.
- (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, Oct. 9, 1998 | Source
The 9/11 Commission Report
The first phase of the use of Iraqi intelligence before the war dealt with the workings of the CIA and related intelligence organizations. The second phase is supposed to focus on how Iraq-related intelligence may have been misused by the White House. However, the message of the report was that both administrations made mis-steps but that neither committed any action or neglected any information that could have actually prevented the attack.
Pundits have noted that the 9/11 Commission Report left everything out of the report that might possibly be construed to lay the blame for the war at the feet of Saddam Hussein. The Middle East is slowly coming out of the Dark Ages while the Democrats are pushing us back into a New Dark Age where good is bad, right is wrong, left is right, and up is down.
Able Danger
According to Gary Palmer and others, “The recent disclosure that a covert military intelligence unit code named Able Danger had information about four of the 9 - 11 terrorists and therefore might have prevented the attacks has raised serious questions about the work of the 9 - 11 Commission and the report they issued last year.” Now we have word
Conservatives are baffled as to why the Republican leadership continues to ignore the Able Danger story. My belief is that the stunt pulled today by the Senate Democrats was intended partly to try to blame the war on someone other than Saddam and partly to distract their friends in the media about Able Danger. Palmer goes on to say:
But that conclusion could change if the claims about Able Danger are verified. According to Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer, had the 9 -11 Commission thoroughly investigated the findings of Able Danger, the commission report would have focused on the legal obstacles put in place by the Clinton Administration that prevented the FBI, the CIA, and apparently the US military intelligence from exchanging information that could possibly have prevented the deaths of over 3,000 people.
…
The fact that the chairman and vice-chairman would attempt to mislead the public about the Commission’s knowledge of the Able Danger information is more than a little troubling. Such denials give substantial credence to those that believe the Commission deliberately engaged in a cover up of information vital to understanding the full scope of the security lapses that allowed the attacks to succeed. Many people believe these security lapses were the result of legal barriers that were created between various federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies by 9 - 11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick while she served as Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration.
PoliPundit can’t believe that the Democrats and their friends in the media — the “mediacrats” — are so stupid as to pull this stunt. On the other hand, the unholy alliance between the mainstream media and the Democrats has thus far managed to keep most people in the dark. The Democrats have a lot to lose if the Able Danger story grows legs and will, of course, lose face when the Libby indictments don’t pan out into anything illegal or immoral.
Beware of Desperate Democrats.
