Did Senators Read Pre-War Iraq Intel Report?

Human Events, Jul 26, 2004

In September 2002, four Democratic senators-Richard Durbin (111.), Bob Graham (Fia.), Diane Feinstein (Calif.) and Carl Levin (Mich.)-asked the CIA to produce a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) detailing what was known about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs and their threat to the United States.

"I deeply believe that such an estimate is vital to congressional decision-making, and most specifically, any resolution which may come before the Senate," Feinstein wrote President Bush.

The CIA published the report on Oct. 1, 2002. The Senate voted to authorize war on Oct. 11, 2002.

Last week, a Kerry campaign release challenged the Bush Administration: "Did anyone in the White House read the full National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq?" A Reuters reporter challenged the campaign to reveal whether Kerry had read it. The answer: No.

Did other senators fail to study the definitive intelligence report on Iraq-created specifically for their benefit-before voting on war? HUMAN EVENTS Assistant Editor David Freddoso visited Capital Hill to find out.

Do you believe members of Congress had a moral obligation to read the NIE before taking the vote to authorize war in Iraq?

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D.-DEL.): Oh, I don't think there's any moral obligation. I think the problem is, sometimes, you have to accept the assertions Presidents make. I make the assumption, when the National security Adviser tells me something, when the President tells me something, when the secretary of Defense tells me something, when the secretary of State tells me something, they're telling the truth... It shouldn't be a moral obligation that we have to doublecheck them. I did read it, and that's why I took issue from the very beginning, as you'll recall, from the very beginning, saying that what they were saying was not accurate. [I read it because] it's my job. My job is foreign policy full-time...

Do you think, then, that more senators might have voted otherwise had they [read the NIE]?

BIDEN: I think they would have voted otherwise, but they just flat trusted the administration and what they were saying. Which is a thing that hopefully is a good thing to do-trust the administration. I just wish they'd been more straightforward....

Given that it's war, and all hundred senators have to vote on it, not just you with your specialization, shouldn't everybody be reading this thing?

BIDEN: I think it's good for everybody to read it, and it would have been good to read it. But again, you have to keep in mind: You assume that when you have the entire administration telling you something, there is no need to go and doubt that what they're telling you is the truth. I just read it as a matter of course.

Do you believe members of Congress had a moral obligation to read the NIE before voting to authorize war in Iraq?

SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D.-N.D): Well, I don't want to revisit what we could have or should have or would have done. Obviously, if the intelligence would have been accurate, things might have been different here. But whether some read the reports or didn't read the reports, we were given briefings in the room upstairs-Top secret briefing after briefing after briefing. And it turns out that a fair amount of that wasn't accurate.

Did you read the report, Senator?

DORGAN: I did not. But we had a vast number of briefings, which were purported to represent what the report said.

Do you think more senators would have questioned what was in the report if they had read it?

DORGAN: I don't think so. :

Do you believe that senators and members of Congress had a moral obligation to read the NIE before voting to authorize the Iraq War?

SEN. BOB GRAHAM (D.-FLA.): I don't think it's an obligation. I don't think it's necessary to do that to come to a conclusion. To me, the NIE just confirmed the judgment you could make without reading it-which was that Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time against the wrong enemy, and that we should have been putting our military up against Afghanistan and al Qaeda, the real enemy.

Do you believe that senators and members of Congress had a moral obligation to read the NIE before voting to authorize the Iraq War?

SEN. BEN NELSON (D.-NEB.): I think the answer to that is that we have technical reviews and we have summaries, and we do have information coming to us throughout. And so we do follow. And so you do the best you can with the information that you have, and some of it's more timely than other information, and this is one of those examples.

Senator, if I can ask you, did you read the NIE before taking the vote?

NELSON: I think I read a summary of it, yes.

A shorter version?

NELSON: I typically read summaries, and our staff is constantlv readme summaries and getting reports back to you. And you read as many of those reports as you can. Now keep in mind, there are others who have different views about the intelligence information or the status of intelligence, and this was an important report, but it wasn't the only report, and it wasn't the only information that was available. What usually happens is, when there's something after the fact, people go back and say, 'This wasn't looked at.' Well, there were all kinds of other things that were looked at and were reviewed as well.