Two things stood out to me right away."This inquiry began as a broader review of the accuracy and objectivity of pre-Iraq war intelligence and its impact on the plans and operations of the Department of Defense (DOD), including the post-war phase. Over time, the focus narrowed due to the information and materials made available (or not provided) to the SASC Minority Staff. The difficulties faced in obtaining documents, the flat out refusal to provide some documents, and the constant delaying tactics used to avoid providing other information demonstrate that current oversight mechanisms and authorities are insufficient to insure timely and complete responses to Congress. Without a greater ability to obtain documents and answers from the Executive Branch, the goal of effective Congressional oversight of the Intelligence Community, so strongly recommended by the 9/11 Commission, will be frustrated.
Another challege in writing this report has been that, unlike most of the IC's judgements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, relatively few of the IC's assessments of the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship have as yet been declassified. Two recently released reports that addressed the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship, those of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the 9/11 Commission, contain relevant declassified intelligence information and are cited in this report.
First of all, in the interest of national security it has always been the practice of the Executive Branch and intelligence agencies to withhold sensitive intelligence information from open sessions. The minute you provide classified intelligence data to an open session, your data is no longer classified. Senator Levin no doubt is aware of this, yet chose to ignore that fact as it went against his circular arguement against the Bush Administration. Did I mention that the Senator is a Democrat?
Second, the Senator mentions the need for better oversight of the intelligence community, citing changes recommended by the 9/11 Commission. Although the Senator's tone indicates the that the Bush Administration is hiding from oversight and intelligence reform, the fact is three days before the Levin report, on 18 October 2004, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice distributed a detailed memorandum to all House and Senate members of the conferences on intelligence reform legislation (H.R. 10 / S. 2845).
The White House memo not only supports intelligence reform, but calls into question the lack of congressional oversight contained within the proposed legislation, and recommends that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees address this critical omission.
Why do I feel as though I have read more intelligence data regarding al-Qaeda's relationship with Iraq than Senator Levin?"The Administration is concerned that neither bill addresses the critical need to reorganize congressional oversight, including intelligence oversight and oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. The 9/11 Commission concluded that the creation of a NID and NCTC 'will not work if congressional oversight does not change too.' Similarly, the 9/11 Commission recommended that 'Congress should create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security.' Accordingly, the 9/11 Commission specifically noted that, of all their recommendations, reorganizing congressional oversight may be 'among the most important.' The Administration strongly urges the Conferees to address this critical omission."
Perhaps Senator Levin should have spent more time reading Charles Duelfer's Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD. Although Senator Levin's 46-page report does a decent job of increasing democratic anti-Bush propoganda, the 1,500 page Duelfer report outlines clear instances of Saddam Hussein's desire to rebuild his WMD program following the U.S. destruction of his biological weapons in 1991, as well as links between Hussein's regime and al-Qaeda operatives.
Duelfer further stated that his investigation, which utilized classified intelligence reports unavailable to Levin's minority staff, could not provide a definitive conclusion.
If Senator Levin is truly concerned about homeland security and accountability amongst intelligence agencies, perhaps he should spent more time reading the reports available to him, and less time writing taxpayer-funded reports which provide little factual data, but seem intent upon furthering the anti-Bush propoganda perpetuated by the Kerry campaign."We cannot yet definitively say whether or not WMD materials were transferred out of Iraq before the war. Neither can we definitively answer some questions about possible retained stocks."
Charles Duelfer, Special Advisor to the DCI, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on October 6, 2004.