I have spent considerable time reading the recently released Senate report, Postwar Findings about Iraq’s WMD

Programs and Links to Terrorism and How they Compare with Prewar

Assessments. This document was written to give us, the people, a clear and objective account. The investigation and oversight process has always had a core value: to get to the truth and provide that to the people. However, it has been my experience (and in this report, the Honorable Trent Lott’s as well) that it is not the truth but grandstanding and agenda fulfilling nihilism that has infected the Senate and House.
This is the first post regarding this report. Near the end of the document you’ll find a tally related to amendments to this document. The tally is to record what someone wanted to change, and how all the committee members voted on that action, desire, or recommendation. It is amazing that for what it’s worth, there are really only 6 Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee (Roberts, Hatch, DeWine, Bond, Lott, and Chambliss). In the following tables I provide the sponsor of the change (BY:), what the sponsor wanted to do (ACTION:), the action to be taken (ADDED:), the result of the vote overall (RESULT:), and finally the vote for each committee member (A/N). The last two columns are the party of the committee member, and whether or not the member’s vote crossed (C = *) the majority party vote.
You’ll see, we’ve got two rogue Republicans. It is also noteworthy that not one Democrat caved. Clearly, the Democrats understand what it means to “hold the line” - even if they’re whacked. (note: i’ll get this into a table later - it’s late!)

BEG:: PDF pg 138, printed pg 135

END:: PDF pg 140, printed pg 137

———————————————————————–

COMMITTEE ACTION

Amendments to draft report, Postwar Findings about Iraq’s WMD

Assessments.

What is even more astounding is that only the Honorable Trent Lott, Senator, Mississippi, was against the entire report. I suspect the reason is because he has been privy to all the intelligence information since September 11th, 2001, and has found that this report is more an agenda paper than it is a true investigative report intended to support the oversight process.
Well, just to ensure you see what I mean, here are some “dissenting” remarks provided by four of the Republican Senators on the committee (Bond, Hatch, Lott, Chambliss):

“(U) We joined the Senate Intelligence Committee to conduct oversight, not to perform witch hunts; we serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee to make our Intelligence Community better, not to use it for partisan politics; we travel overseas to speak with our operators on the ground in order to gain insights in how to support them and make them successful. As such, we have endeavored to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to accommodate as many concerns as possible, and we believe it is time to move forward with the active intelligence oversight.”

Yeah, he said witch hunt!!!
The above comments came much later in the document (pg 147). Right out of the gate, I believe that Trent Lott was trying to communicate to those of us reading this report how this committee’s action was all a waste. Here is the first paragraph to get the ball rolling:

“(U) Any investigation that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Committee or SSCI) undertakes should ultimately improve the Intelligence Community (IC) and enhance our national security. Unlike independent commissions, panels and boards, the oversight committees of Congress have the power to effect change. The fifteen members of this Committee along with our counterparts in the House of Representatives and our Committee staffs comprise the only oversight bodies outside of the Executive Branch with the authority to execute a difficult, and much needed, intelligence transformation. This second report in a series of reports coming from a second round investigation into Iraq prewar intelligence comes at a critical juncture. Yet, rather than attempt to improve our efforts to combat terrorism and make our country safer, the results of this investigation were calculated to promote a partisan agenda. Thus, sadly, the Committee’s two-year-long, second investigation of Iraq pre-war intelligence has failed to heed a higher call.”

I know that that is long. But it speaks directly to how we are endangering ourselves as a nation by running around creating useless reports from the perspective of a Committee. Intelligence gathered in the field is by nature raw and without political impact. It does not care to what party you belong, it just says this guy did that to this guy and at the same time this happened over here to ignite an even more violent reaction … blah, blah, blah. It is our politicians that take the data and … retool it for their own benefit.
Check this out, my last paragraph, but this part is a good old fashioned throw down:

“(U) Immediately following September 11 as well as after our invasion of Iraq, a number of outstanding investigations were conducted that produced actionable findings and recommendations in seminal documents [a list is provided] …”
“… Yet, for the past two years, rather than pursue our oversight role to ensure that some of the key findings and recommendations of the reports and others were enacted, this Committee’s usefulness as an oversight body and as a key element in our national security apparatus has been consumed by a rear-view mirror investigation pursued for political ends. If this second round investigation had offered the Congress and the American people additional insights that the plethora of previous reports had overlooked, than we would have stood together in full support of it. The truth is, however, that it does not.”

So, we spend two years not uncovering one thing that makes this report stand out from the rest. Sure, Liberals are going to tell you that this report proves that we went to war on a lie - but it really doesn’t.
You just need to read it to know why the Liberals are wrong. Yet, sadly, no one is really reading this report they are just riffing on someone else’s half-baked analysis.
Until you truly take the time, do some work, you’ll remain someone else’s sock puppet.
TAGS: Fix4RSO, Milblog, Military, WMD, Iraq, Report

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 0:57 and is filed under Fix4RSO, GimbalLock, Kudzu, PoliCubed, WoodenNickel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.