{"id":7231,"date":"2006-04-25T10:39:26","date_gmt":"2006-04-25T14:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7231"},"modified":"2006-04-25T10:39:26","modified_gmt":"2006-04-25T14:39:26","slug":"pat-roberts-perfect-timing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/pat-roberts-perfect-timing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Roberts’ perfect timing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than 48 hours ago, [tag]Tyler Drumheller[\/tag], the former highest ranking [tag]CIA[\/tag] officer in Europe, explained that intelligence officials told the White House<\/a> that Iraq had no WMD and had the kind of blockbuster, inside-source imaginable to confirm this. The [tag]Bush[\/tag] gang blew him off and went to war.<\/p>\n

At the same time, lawmakers like Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman [tag]Pat Roberts[\/tag] (R-Kan.) spoke to Drumheller, learned exactly what had happened<\/a>, and kept quiet.<\/p>\n

Almost on cue, Roberts announced that he wants to keep his committee’s report on manipulation of pre-war intelligence under wraps indefinitely<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he wants to divide his panel’s inquiry into the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq-related intelligence into two parts, a move that would push off its most politically controversial elements to a later time.<\/p>\n

The inquiry has dragged on for more than two years, a slow pace that prompted Democrats to force the Senate into an extraordinary closed-door session in November. Republicans then promised to speed up the probe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And now they’re slowing it down again.<\/p>\n

Roberts has been playing this game for years. Initially, the Senate Intelligence Committee was going to release a comprehensive report on pre-war intelligence, what it said, and how it was handled. Then Roberts split the report in two — one on how wrong the intelligence was (released before the election) and another on how the White House used the available information (released after the election).<\/p>\n

Two years later, Roberts wants to split “Phase Two” again. One would report on relatively less controversial topics, such as the intelligence community’s use of intelligence provided by the Iraqi National Congress, while postponing, again, findings on whether administration officials were truthful and responsible in handling pre-war intelligence. As The Hill noted<\/a>, “The committee may review statements by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice,” which Dems wanted desperately to do in 2004, but which Roberts refused to do.<\/p>\n

And now that he wants to add further delays, despite promises to the contrary<\/a>, Roberts’ sterling reputation as a political hack<\/a> who leads the “Senate Coverup Committee<\/a>” remains very much intact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Less than 48 hours ago, [tag]Tyler Drumheller[\/tag], the former highest ranking [tag]CIA[\/tag] officer in Europe, explained that intelligence officials told the White House that Iraq had no WMD and had the kind of blockbuster, inside-source imaginable to confirm this. The [tag]Bush[\/tag] gang blew him off and went to war. At the same time, lawmakers like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}