Cheney Sought to Delay Iraq Report, Senator Says

The Democratic chairman of the Senate intelligence committee last week accused U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney of placing “constant” pressure on his predecessor to slow the panel’s investigation of the White House’s use of intelligence regarding prewar Iraq’s weapons programs, McClatchy Newspapers reported (see GSN, Jan. 26).

Cheney regularly made the administration’s wishes known to Republican staff members, said Senator John Rockefeller (W.Va.).  He said his comments were not based on “hearsay.”

“It was just constant,” Rockefeller said.  Republicans “just had to go along with the administration.”

Responding to Rockefeller by e-mail, Cheney spokeswoman Lea McBride said, “The vice president believes Senator [Pat] Roberts was a good chairman of the intelligence committee.”

Democrats are to blame for the fact that the more than 2-year-old investigation remains unfinished, said Jackie Cottrell, chief of staff for Roberts (R-Kan.).

“Senator Rockefeller’s allegations are patently untrue,” she said by e-mail.  “The delays came from the Democrats’ insistence that they expand the inquiry to make it a more political document going into the 2006 elections.  Chairman Roberts did everything he could to accommodate their requests for further information without allowing them to distort the facts.”

In a July 2004 report, the committee criticized U.S. intelligence agencies for incorrectly assessing that Iraq had ongoing WMD programs (see GSN, July 9, 2004).  The panel then began studying the use of intelligence by top Bush administration personnel to make the case for the March 2003 invasion, McClatchy reported.

Despite Roberts’ pledge to work quickly and pressure from Democrats, only two of the five reports from the second phase of the investigation have been published.

One remaining report is expected to compare the contents of top-secret intelligence reports to public White House statements regarding Iraq’s weapons efforts and links to terrorism.

The second phase of the investigation must be completed, Rockefeller said.

“The looking backward creates tension, but it’s necessary because the administration needs to be held accountable and the country … needs to know,” he said (Jonathan Landay, McClatchy Newspapers/The Wichita Eagle, Jan. 26).

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