Intelligence

DATE=06/25/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CONGRESS / IRAQ INTELLIGENCE (L)

NUMBER=2-304742

BYLINE=DAN ROBINSON

DATELINE=CAPITOL HILL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Members of Congress reviewing intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify military action in Iraq, say they are determined to get to the bottom of the controversy. Lawmakers spoke as the House of Representatives debated a funding bill for 14 U-S intelligence agencies. V-O-A's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill:

TEXT: Congresswoman Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and the Republican chairman of that committee, Porter Goss, both vowed that the American people will receive clear answers. However, Mrs. Harman used stronger language than her Republican colleague.

Based on reviews of intelligence so far, she says it is clear Iraq at one time had chemical and biological weapons. However, she says the failure so far of U-S and British forces to locate any underscores the importance of a thorough investigation:

/// HARMAN ACT ///

I urge this administration not to contemplate military action, especially in Iran, North Korea, or Syria until these matters are cleared up.

/// END ACT ///

Mrs. Harman says administration officials, from President Bush on down, rarely attached "caveats" (cautions) to information about the chemical and biological weapons they said Iraq possessed. This, she says, may have mis-led many Americans into thinking evidence was stronger than it was:

/// OPTIONAL HARMAN ACT ///

The committee is now investigating whether the intelligence case on Iraq's W-M-D was based on circumstantial evidence, rather than hard facts, and whether the intelligence community made clear to the policymakers in Congress that most of its analytic judgments were based on things like aerial photos, Iraqi defector interviews, not hard facts.

/// END ACT END OPT ///

Mrs. Harman also says intelligence used by the administration to draw a link between the al-Qaida terrorist organization and Saddam Hussein contains "conflicts" she says must be completely investigated.

The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Porter Goss, says lawmakers want to make as much information as possible public, but appealed for patience:

/// GOSS ACT ///

We want the public to understand how good intelligence is, and how good it isn't. Frankly, I want to do everything I can to make the American people aware, as well as people overseas who might be watching what we have to say here, whether they are our friends or enemies, that our intelligence is indeed formidable, and when in fact we find a place where there is a gap in it, it will be repaired and fixed and that gap will no longer be there.

/// END ACT ///

When it votes on the intelligence funding bill on Thursday, the House is expected to reject an amendment by Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich that would have required a C-I-A audit of all telephone and electronic communication between the agency and Vice President Dick Cheney relating to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Also expected to be rejected is a Democrat-sponsored amendment that would have required an investigation and government report on the extent of intelligence sharing by the C-I-A and Defense Department with U-N arms inspectors prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Congresswoman Harman says the House Intelligence committee is committed to issuing a public report on its findings so far, based on unclassified information, as soon as possible. She wants public hearings to begin next month.

The Senate intelligence committee is conducting its own review of thousands of pages of intelligence documents. (signed)

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