With all the unsettling talk about a possible military campaign in [tag]Iran[/tag], you might think the [tag]Senate Intelligence Committee[/tag] would be spending a great deal of time reviewing the available intelligence.
Alas, you’d be wrong.
Kansas Republican Sen. [tag]Pat Roberts[/tag], the committee chair, warns that “we have not made the progress on our oversight of Iran intelligence, which is critical.” The panel has done only piecemeal scrutiny of the spy agencies’ work on Iran. “There is no organized committee staff effort to look at Iran right now,” says majority staff director Bill Duhnke. “It’s all sort of on hold.”
As it happens, that’s not even the best part. Not only has Roberts shown no real interest in inquiring about a threat from Iran and its nuclear program, but Roberts also blames committee [tag]Democrats[/tag] for making him waste time with errunds such as administration accountability.
[tag]Roberts[/tag] blames it on Democrats who are “more focused on intelligence failures of the past.” Committee staffers who would conduct the Iran inquiry are instead tied up with the long-awaited second phase of the panel’s review of prewar intelligence on Iraq (which covers how the Bush administration used the intelligence).
Yes, of course. Roberts was supposed to have finished the infamous “Phase 2” report in 2004, before the presidential election, so the public would understand whether the administration manipulated intelligence before the war in Iraq began. Roberts broke his word, dragged his feet, and the report is still pending.
Now, Roberts would rather give up on Iraq-related accountability altogether and blame Dems for distracting him from Iran. Sure, the Senate Cover-up Intelligence Committee could begin an inquiry into Iran-related intelligence while it finishes up a report that was supposed to have been done two years ago, but Roberts apparently prefers inaction on both.
Roberts is once again proving himself to be uniquely unsuited for the job he’s been given. He doesn’t want to learn necessary lessons from his Iraq mistakes and and he’s failing to do his duty as the situation with Iran grows more serious.
In February, a New York Times editorial asked rhetorically, “Is there any aspect of President Bush’s miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up?” The answer, unfortunately, is obvious.