A Squabble between Roberts and His Masters?

/in /by

One of the most amusing bits from this article on the upcoming Phase II publication (I guess we have to call the stuff Roberts has delayed further, Phase II.2?) is its description of a dispute between BushCo and Senator Pat Roberts.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee lashed outat the White House on Thursday, criticizing attempts by the Bushadministration to keep secret parts of a report on the role Iraqiexiles played in building the case for war against Iraq.

The chairman, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, said his committee hadcompleted the first two parts of its investigation of prewarintelligence. But he chastised the White House for efforts to classifymost of the part that examines intelligence provided to the Bushadministration by the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group.

“Ihave been disappointed by this administration’s unwillingness todeclassify material contained in these reports, material which Ibelieve better informs the public, but that does not — I repeat, doesnot — jeopardize intelligence operations, sources and methods,” Mr.Roberts said in a statement issued Thursday.

Uh huh. Consider me skeptical. I think it more likely that Roberts realized he couldn’t defend classifying this information since the Democrats (and a few restless Republicans) know well it doesn’t fit any rules of classification. That is, Roberts knows he has to fight BushCo on this, or lose his shaky claim to be an intelligence reformer.

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  2. Maier says:

    Chalabi ran into some problems that were not related to Iraq, but North Americans and is no longer considered Prime material. He worked with these groups and, probably CIA.

    The US has reinforced Baghdad anticipating a coup, after Isreal lost Sharon and the radicals broke the agreement not to invade other countries while we’re on the ground in the Garden of Dat.

    It’s possible that they played a role, working with Plame, in finding the bio WMD manufactring lab and ’Dr. WMD’ in Iraq. She was freed by the Iraqi courts and no one knows where she is; working with other intelligence services would be normal for someone being run by CIA – like Plame.

    It would be difficult to declassify the CIA deal that got ’Dr. WMD’ freed by the Iraqi courts.

  3. kim says:

    I can’t take much more of the â€reforms†the WH and Republican majority are forcing on the US, and the rest of the world for that matter.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Maier

    I’m more curious what happened to Nassir Hindawi, who was Dr. Germ’s teacher. He took refuge with Chalabi in April 2003, and AFAIK, he hasn’t been heard from either (I don’t think he appears in the ISG report). Iran tried to help him escape in, IIRC, 1998, so they’ve shown an interest in the past.

  5. Semanticleo says:

    After Gen Abizaid’s testimony before the Senate, both Roberts and
    HRC are feeling a little safer criticising the war in Iraq.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Not to nitpick, but HRC saw the light after Take Back America, when she was roundly booed over her Iraq comments. I happened to be there and her jaw was clenched so tightly I thought her teeth would break. Not long after that she back peddled on Iraq, joined on with the Levin amendment, then hired Peter Daou. She got the message long before yesterday.

    But about Hinsawi, that’s an excellent point, which I’d actually let slip; emphasis on the Iran connection. Where the hell is he? It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth.

  8. Semanticleo says:

    Taylor;

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but she is a little late to the game. BTW, love the look of your site. Craveable.

    Leo

  11. Anonymous says:

    FYI
    laura rozen: â€According to Senate sources, the four Republicans who voted against the Chalabi section findings are Senators Trent Lott, Orrin Hatch, Saxby Chambliss, and Kit Bond.â€

  12. Toeas says:

    Chamblis and Bond? I don’t think they really wanted to do what they did.

    Hindawi? No deal like Dr WMD?

    HRC is way late. She got seniority in Congress by claiming security concerns and was sworn in early. 9/11 was in the middle of a two week exercise looking for precisely what happened. Rumor has it they flew right over the National Guard base in the exercise and HRC walked out of the building before the planes.

    New York is a skip.

  15. Simon says:

    Emptywheel,

    Hindawi does get plenty of mentions in the ISG final report. He was, according to Joby Warrick (or possibly Walter Pincus) of the Washington Post, US trained. Supposedly it was him who first suggested use of disease agents in the Iran/Iraq war. He was not exactly the ’father’ of the BW programmes, as a microbiologist he was later just an advisor to Taha Rihab. He had denied that there were US/UK trained virologists working in Iraq and supplied information to suggest Hussein Kamal had intended to restart the BW effort after the sanctions had been lifted. He also supplied details of conversations he claimed to have had with Amir al-Saadi. My guess is that he might even have have been a US plant from the very beginning. I’m sure Amir would be happy to tell us the truth about him if they would let him. I personally rank Nassir Hindawi alongside Khidhir Hamza, rather than the seemingly far more honest Imad Khadduri.

  16. Dave Weber says:

    Simon wrote: 8/9/06: He also supplied details of conversations he claimed to have had with Amir al-Saadi. My guess is that he might even have have been a US plant from the very beginning. I’m sure Amir would be happy to tell us the truth about him if they would let him.

    Where is Amir Al Saadi? Who won’t let him speak?