It is widely known, despite the media's best attempts to characterize it differently, that Harry Ried's now famous closed session earlier this week was a cheap political stunt. Courtesy of antimedia and Faces from the Front, we now know that it was not only a stunt, it was a stall tactic, directly designed to mislead the public into believing it was the Republican Party that was dragging its feet on phase II of an investigation into pre-war intelligence.
But, while the press was parroting whatever Democratic spin was provided as though it were fact, the truth of the matter is that the report has been compiled since mid-May. It was an attempt by Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Pat Roberts to insure bipartisanship that led to the report not being released.
At the May 17 meeting, I made a number of attempts to begin evaluating nearly 500 statements made by Administration officials and Members of Congress, over 300 of which were provided by the Democrats. My friends across the aisle wouldn’t even let me get past the first statement. When they learned that I didn’t intend to identify the speakers in an effort to remove partisan bias, they wanted to talk about everything but public statements.”
It would appear that the Democrats on the committee wanted no part of evaluating pre-war statements on Iraq's capabilities, as long as they would be forced to evaluate the comments of themselves and their leftist colleagues. Perhaps that is because their entire propoganda campaign against the president and his "lies" leading up to the war would crumble like week old cake with statements like these:
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is useing and developing weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002.
"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years . We also should remember we have alway s underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Jay Rockerfeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002,
"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002.
"There is no doubt that . Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies." Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL,) and others, Dec, 5, 2001.
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998.
"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
No one on the right or the left has ever condemned these speakers as liars or manipulators. If the intelligence was wrong, it was wrong. The only party turning it into a partisan issue (instead of focusing on improving our intelligence gathering) is the left. Therefore, they cannot afford to have any attention drawn to their own statements on the subject.
Roberts, a Republican, made an attempt to remove bias from the process of determining the truth, and the left wanted no part of it. They still don't, which is why it was so important for Ried to call a closed session and throw a tantrum blaming the Republicans for stalling the report. A simple diversion, that is all.
Naturally, the press was more than happy to carry the water for Ried, reporting the matter as though a "damning" report was hidden in some evil Republican's desk, never to see the light of day were it not for the heroism of Reid and senate Democrats.
Instead: On Monday, Chairman Roberts informed the Democratic staff that he was going to conclude the work on the second phase of the report.
Reid was forced into the position of having to confront that he and his fellow members had exaggerated pre-war intelligence with public statements or, having to give a blanket seal of approval to all the Administration’s statements. And we know what he did 24 hours later.
Once again, we see germaine details left out of a news story to the benefit of Democrats, even in their attempt to mislead the American public and stifle an important report. A report, by the way, that will show "The Committee found no evidence that the IC's mischarachterization or exaggeration of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities was the result of political pressure."
You know, an entire political platform built on cheap political propoganda and finger pointing is a fragile thing. If the press hadn't been so uninterested in fair play, or even competence, over the last few years, maybe the Democrats would have been forced to divert their attention to more important matters, like creating some kind of forward thinking platform for America.
Perhaps that was Karl Rove's plan all along.
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