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Deadline passes for Iraq documentsBut officials say they're working to meet senators' demands
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With a noon Friday deadline passing, staff members of a Senate panel said they didn't expect federal agencies to deliver all their documents and to schedule testimony on prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs by that time. But one staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said, "Some things are coming in." The Senate committee had sent bluntly worded letters this week to the White House, State Department, Pentagon and CIA, demanding documents relevant to its investigation into prewar intelligence by the Friday deadline. The letters also insisted that witnesses the committee wants to hear from contact the panel to schedule appearances by the same deadline. Officials at the agencies said they were working to meet the demands, though they indicated they would not be finished by the deadline. An intelligence official at the CIA said the agency is "working very hard to respond to the committee's requests. We will be providing a lot of material [Friday], and more will be forthcoming." However, it remained unclear whether the White House would decline to provide certain documents. Panel: 'Credibility ... at stake'Committee staffers said they want the matter resolved, pointing out that many requests for materials have been in the Bush administration's hands since July. The committee's chairman and the ranking Democrat sent the letters to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet. A committee staffer said the senators felt that after months of delay "if you don't give them a deadline, then who knows when the bureaucracy would get its act together?" Aides said that neither the chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, nor the ranking member, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, plans to comment Friday on what is or isn't delivered. The committee is working on a report about prewar intelligence the administration had about possible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and how the intelligence was used. The administration is under growing political pressure as months have passed without the discovery of any such weapons. In the letters to Rumsfeld and Powell, the two senators said, "The credibility of the government with its people -- and the nation with the world -- is at stake. Incomplete answers and lingering doubts will haunt us for many years." Asked whether the committee will issue subpoenas if the agencies do not deliver the required documents and witnesses, a panel staff member said, "Our expectation is that it will not come to that." National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that council members are "surprised by the substance and tone" of the panel's letter because the White House has been assisting the committee in its review of intelligence. "We've made available NSC staff ... given access to relevant documents, even though the committee does not have jurisdiction over the White House," McCormack said. "Neither Dr. Rice nor the White House has objected to allowing the committee access to CIA documents sent to the White House, and in fact, White House lawyers made copies of these documents available to the committee last summer." In the letter to Rice, the senators said: "We have made numerous requests for documents which we have not yet been provided, and we have sought to interview a member of your staff without success. Some of these requests have gone unanswered since July. "You must expedite our access to the outstanding documents and immediately make available the individual identified. You must also lift your objection to the Central Intelligence Agency providing the committee with certain documents and allowing us to interview individuals involved in briefing senior administration officials." White House officials have suggested that the president may decide to refuse to supply certain intelligence documents, such as presidential daily briefs, citing executive privilege. Spokesman: State Department cooperatingSpokesman Richard Boucher said Friday the State Department has been "very responsive" to the committee requests, "and we will continue to do everything possible to help the chairman and vice chairman complete their important review of U.S. intelligence." Eleven document requests from the committee have been fulfilled, two more requests will be completed Friday and more resources are needed to complete two other requests, Boucher said. Six other requests were for briefings or interviews of personnel, and arrangements have been made for all of them, Boucher said. Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage have instructed the State Department staff to "give them what they want," an official said. A Senate source said the letter to Tenet was "designed to be a wake-up call" to "tell the CIA how urgent this is."
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