[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 79 (Monday, June 2, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   WHAT INFORMATION LED US INTO IRAQ?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, not many weeks ago, we sent our sons and 
daughters into a war where many lost their lives, and in fact, our 
soldiers are currently under threat in Iraq, and just last week, others 
were killed.
  There is a remaining question in the minds of many Americans as to 
exactly what information led us to make this decision to go into Iraq 
as we did, and in Sunday's edition of the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch, 
there was a column written by Nicholas Kristof who writes for the New 
York Times, and the headline for his column is this: ``U.S. 
Intelligence Officials Incensed Over Manipulating Their Data to Invade 
Iraq.''
  Mr. Kristof begins his column, ``On Thursday, Day 71 of the hunt for 
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, once again nothing turned up. Maybe 
we'll do better on Day 72 or 73 or 74. But we might have better luck 
searching for something just as alarming: the growing evidence that the 
administration grossly manipulated intelligence about those weapons of 
mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war.''
  Then Mr. Kristof says this, A column that he had written earlier in 
the month ``drew a torrent of covert communications from indignant 
spooks who say that administration officials leaned on them to 
exaggerate the Iraqi threat and deceive the public.''
  He continues, `` `The American people were manipulated,' bluntly 
declared one person from the Defense Intelligence Agency who says he 
was privy to all of the intelligence there on Iraq. These people are 
fiercely proud of the deepest ethic in the intelligence world--that it 
should be nonpolitical--and are disgusted at efforts to turn them into 
propagandists.''
  He quotes, `` `The al Qaeda connection and nuclear weapons issue were 
the only two ways that you could link Iraq to an imminent security 
threat to the U.S.,' said Greg Thielmann, who retired in September 
after 25 years in the State Department.'' The last four of those years 
he was in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He said, ``The 
administration was grossly distorting the intelligence on both things.
  ``The outrage among the intelligence professionals is so widespread 
that they have formed a group, Veterans Intelligence Professionals for 
Sanity,'' and they wrote President Bush this month to protest what they 
called ``a policy and intelligence fiasco of monumental proportions.
  `` `While there have been occasions in the past when intelligence has 
been deliberately warped for political purposes,' the letter said, 
`never before has such warping been used in such a systematic way to 
mislead our elected representatives into voting to authorize the 
launching of a war.' ''
  ``Some say,'' according to Mr. Kristof, ``that top Pentagon officials 
cast about for the most sensational tidbits about Iraq and then used 
them to bludgeon Secretary of State Colin Powell and seduce the 
President. The Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, has been 
generally liked and respected within the agency ranks, but in the past 
year, particularly in the intelligence directorate, people say that he 
has kowtowed to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and compromised 
the integrity of his organization.''
  Now, Mr. Kristof emphasizes that ``The CIA is examining its record, 
and that's welcome. But the atmosphere within the intelligence 
community is so poisonous, and the stakes are so high--for the 
credibility of America's word and the soundness of information on which 
we base American foreign policy--that an outside examination is 
essential.''
  Mr. Kristof concludes his column by saying, ``Congress must provide 
greater oversight, and President Bush should invite Brent Scowcroft, 
the head of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and a 
man trusted by all sides, to lead an inquiry'' in a public report so 
that we can restore confidence in America's intelligence agencies.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an important issue. The American people are 
paying attention, and the President needs to provide us with some 
answers.

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