It's not exactly like he convened the panel to actually figure out any culpability of the administration or anything. He specifically chose a select group (more on that in a minute) and then set them an agenda to find out why the CIA didn't provide good intelligence. Which of course absolutely ignores the fact that they did, but the administration refused to accept it, choosing instead to go with doctored and false intelligence supplied by their puppets and Iraqi exiles. Plus, he set the date for their report in 2005, after the November election.
| [Committee member Senator John] McCain plans to take the issue to the commission’s chairmen, former Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.) and Laurence Silberman, a federal appeals-court judge who served as deputy attorney general in the Nixon and Ford administrations. |
Yeah, well, good luck, Huck...
| McCain has appeared more active than Robb, the top-ranking Democrat, in seeking wide authority. In a conversation with Bush prior to his appointment, Robb assured the president he would not support examining the administration’s use of intelligence, said a Senate source familiar with the meeting.
“Robb bent over backward [to say] he did not support looking at the users,” said the source. Bush has made it clear to Robb that he must keep his distance from Senate Democrats. Robb learned that he was to be appointed co-chairmen only a few hours before Bush made a public announcement. And Robb was warned that if he consulted with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) before the announcement, he would be stripped of his appointment, Senate sources said. |
Wow. There's an independent committee member if I ever heard of one.
| McCain wants to examine how...intelligence was used by policymakers to justify the Iraq invasion. |
Sorry, bub. Not in the mandate.
| At least five separate committees are investigating prewar intelligence. They are the Senate and House intelligence panels, the Iraq Survey Group, a CIA internal review team and the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. |
And not one of them will find anything meaningful, and certainly nothing that implicates the White House in illegal conduct.
| Unlike the House and Senate Committees, the president’s independent commission will not limit its intelligence review of weapons of mass destruction programs to Iraq.
“Their scope is a little broader,” said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) “It’s the systematic challenge we’ve had.” Roberts hesitated when asked if the commission should be given subpoena power before finally saying “If they ask for it I think they ought to have it.” |
And that truly is a surprise.
Never mind. They won't get it. Certainly not before after November 2. And most likely not then. Unless the shredders have finished work.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
