| " ...Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National Intelligence By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President's position also affords him the authority - which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted (1) - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. (2) As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President (3) - in contrast to Members of Congress (4) - have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community's intelligence more accurately than is Congress. (5) In addition to their greater access to intelligence, the President and his senior advisors also are better equipped than is Congress to assess intelligence information by virtue of the primacy of their roles in formulating U.S. foreign policy. Their foreign policy responsibilities often require active, sustained, and often personal interaction, with senior officials of many of the same countries targeted for intelligence collection by the Intelligence Community. Thus the President and his senior advisors are uniquely positioned to glean additional information and impressions - information that, like certain sensitive intelligence information, is generally unavailable to Congress - that can provide them with an important additional perspective with which to judge the quality of intelligence...." |
Be sure to read the entire memo, which is posted at Senator Dianne Feinstein's official web site..
Is Ms. Feinstein laying the groundwork for upcoming excuses for voting in 2002 in favor of the war? Here's a portion of a (form) letter I received this morning from Feinstein (emphasis mine):
| ...The Senate vote on the resolution to authorize the use of force in Iraq was difficult and consequential based on hours of intelligence briefings from Administration and intelligence officials, as well as the classified and unclassified versions of an important National Intelligence Estimate that comprehensively assessed Iraqi's WMD program. It was based on trust that this intelligence was the best our Nation's intelligence services could offer, untainted by bias, and fairly presented. In this case it was not. The bottom line is that Iraq did not possess nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in 2003 when the war began. Saddam Hussein did not have an active nuclear, chemical or biological weapons program. Considering the statements that were being made by the Administration, and the intelligence that was presented to Congress which said otherwise, this points once again to major failures in the analysis, collection and use of intelligence. On top of these intelligence failures, the Administration's war planning was shortsighted and ill conceived. By failing to provide adequate troop levels to secure Iraq and its borders and ignoring requests from General Shinseki and others to increase troop levels, the Administration placed the entire mission in Iraq in jeopardy. While the situation in Iraq causes all of us deep and growing concern, I recognize that setting a specific date for withdrawal of all American troops, without completing this mission, carries with it the particular hazard that Iraq would deteriorate into chaos, civil war, and a terrorist state would evolve thereby destabilizing the Middle East. Terrorists would be re-invigorated by America turning tail and running, and would increase their efforts to attack westerners and in particular, Americans. However, I do believe with the election of permanent Iraqi leadership coming on December 15, 2005, there will be an opportunity to assess the stability and the results of American training of Iraqi police and military. It may well be that there will be a better opportunity to then begin a withdrawal.... |
So you can see that she is still spouting the Bush Administration's spin that leaving Iraq now will plunge the country into further chaos, rather than supporting the more intelligent analyses which show a likely reduction in insurgency activity and favorable placation to the wishes of 80% of Iraqis.
Unless she wakes up to the demands of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, I'll be damned if I vote for her in the primaries.
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