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Senate committee to hold closed hearings on U.S. intelligence on IraqRoberts says allegations 'must be cleared up'
By Sean Loughlin
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold closed-door hearings as part of its ongoing review of U.S. intelligence on Iraq, the chairman of that panel announced Wednesday, but there will not be a formal, public inquiry as sought by Democrats. The move comes amid questions about whether the Bush administration manipulated intelligence data to bolster its case for war. Sen. Pat Robert, R-Kansas, made it clear that he has seen no evidence that any intelligence data was slanted or politicized, but he said the allegations from anonymous officials saying they were under pressure to "skew their analysis" were serious and "must be cleared up." "If any officials believe... that they have been pressured to alter their assessment, they have an obligation -- and I encourage them -- to contact the committee," Roberts said at a press conference attended by other Republican members of the Senate committee and his House counterpart. No Democrats attended the news conference. Roberts said his panel would work with the Senate Armed Services Committee, but a joint formal investigation would be "very premature." "Let's do our homework first," he said. White House reactionAt the White House, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said the administration would cooperate with Congress. "The administration welcomes the review," Fleischer said. "It's important. We always work together with Congress on dealing with the threat of Iraqi possession of WMD and we will continue to work with Congress on the facts that led previous administrations, Democrats, Republicans alike, to know that he had WMD." Sen. John "Jay" Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he welcomed the upcoming hearings, but described them as "not sufficient" and called for a "full fact-finding investigation." "We need to be able to request additional intelligence documents; interview intelligence community and administration officials, past and present; hold closed and open hearings, and prepare a final public report on lessons learned," the West Virginia Democrat said in a statement. The Bush administration has come under fire from some Democrats and critics abroad because no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, despite U.S. and British statements before the war that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was harboring and developing such banned weapons. Arguing that Saddam posed a global threat, coalition forces, led by the United States, invaded Iraq in March, toppling the Iraqi regime. Saddam remains unaccounted for, and the search for weapons of mass destruction continues. President Bush recently pointed to the discovery of what he described as two "mobile biological weapons facilities" as evidence of Saddam's interest in and Iraq's capability of producing biological weapons. But no actual WMD have been found, and criticism of the administration has grown sharper and louder in recent weeks -- particularly from Democrats. Wednesday, for example, Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters the Bush administration "embellished" and "hyped" intelligence concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program, though he added, "I believe those weapons do exist." "I am not accusing them of cooking the books," Biden of Delaware said. "I am accusing them of hyping--it's different." "They took the truth and they embellished it in my view," he added. CIA Director George Tenet and other members of the administration have denied that claim. U.N. reportA recent U.N. report on the matter was inconclusive, saying there was no evidence before the war that Iraq had reconstituted its chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs. But the report also noted that Iraq was unable to account for chemical or biological weapons it claimed to have destroyed, and weapons inspectors were unable to clear up discrepancies before they left Baghdad in advance of the invasion. Roberts said his committee was already reviewing intelligence documents supplied by the CIA director. The review, he said, would evaluate "the intelligence underlying the pre-war assessments of Iraq's WMD capability and its connections to terrorists groups." It would also evaluate the "reasonableness" of the assessments and their accuracy by comparing them with the results of the ongoing search, Roberts said. "Beginning next week, I intend to hold hearings on a number of topics relevant to this review and our ongoing oversight of the intelligence agencies," Roberts said, promising a "deliberate and bipartisan" approach. Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, said his panel was also reviewing the CIA material. "The evidence that I have examined does not rise to give the presumption that any one in this administration has hyped or cooked or embellished such evidence to a particular purpose," Warner, R-Virginia, said. -- CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor and Congressional Producer Trish Turner contributed to this report.
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