[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4214-H4215]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    EITHER WE DO OUR JOB OR WE DON'T

  (Mr. WELCH of Vermont asked and was given permission to address the

[[Page H4215]]

House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Last week, the Government Reform and Oversight 
Committee voted to subpoena Secretary Rice and it was faced, the 
committee, with a simple question. We could do our job or not.
  There is no question, no question that the intelligence used by the 
administration to justify the war in Iraq was dead wrong. Secretary 
Rice was the administration's principal spokesperson, and under her 
leadership the administration was certain but wrong about the Niger 
claim; certain but wrong about the aluminum tubes, certain but wrong 
about the al Qaeda connection, about the mobile labs, about unmanned 
aerial vehicles. And there are now three questions that Congress must 
answer. How did the White House and Secretary Rice have such confidence 
they were so right when, in fact, they were so wrong? How can we 
protect the American people and U.S. military from such misinformation 
in the future? And was the administration's active dissemination of bad 
intelligence premeditated and deliberate, done with the intention to 
deceive the American people, or was it reckless and cavalier, done to 
justify a decision to go to war that had already been made?

                          ____________________