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Levin: Intelligence Committee To Focus On Bush

Second Half Of Report May Be Released After Election

POSTED: 2:41 pm EDT July 9, 2004
UPDATED: 8:31 pm EDT July 9, 2004

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., says the Senate Intelligence Committee will concentrate on the administration of President George W. Bush for the second half of its report on pre-war intelligence.

The committee released the first half of the report, which states that the Central Intelligence Agency's missteps ended up giving the Bush administration overstated or incorrect conclusions before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The report cites that the key U.S. assertions leading to the invasion of Iraq -- that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons and was working to make nuclear weapons -- were wrong and based on false or overstated CIA analyses.

The report repeatedly blasts departing CIA Director George Tenet, who has resigned and leaves office this week, accusing him of skewing advice to top policy-makers with the CIA's view and elbowing out dissenting views from other intelligence agencies overseen by the State or Defense departments.

It faulted Tenet for not personally reviewing Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, which contained since-discredited references to Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium in Africa.

Levin, a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pointed the blame at the Bush administration when discussing the report on NBC's "Today" show Friday morning.

"I think it's also clear that they were shaping intelligence in order to meet the policy needs of the administration. There can't be much doubt about that," said Levin.

Levin said the report paints only half the picture, focusing critically on the CIA for its assessment that wrongly claimed Iraq was hiding illegal weapons. He added that the report doesn't examine what he called the administration's exaggerations about the intelligence they received.

Levin said Vice President Dick Cheney and other policy makers exaggerated the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida.

Cheney, who spoke with Local 4's Emery King on Friday, disagreed with the senator.

"I think Senator Levin is wrong. I think he's got a selective memory here with respect to the statements he's made," said Cheney. "The committee interviewed over 200 individuals from the intelligence community. They could find no one out of that entire group that indicated they felt pressure directed by the administration with respect to the kind of intelligence they should produce."

Cheney added that the CIA's position evolved over time as events played out and that his statements closely reflected what the intelligence community told the administration about weapons of mass destruction and the al-Qaida connection.

But Michigan Democratic party Chairman Butch Holowell said Levin was correct in putting some of the blame on the administration.

"I think Senator Levin is right on target when he says it's a whitewash to say that the CIA is the one who failed in their intelligence when it is the White House that failed to: one, establish any links with al-Qaida; two, any imminent nuclear threat from Saddam Hussein; and number three, any weapon of mass destruction," said Holowell.

Levin said the second phase of the report will deal with the Bush administration's conduct. Republicans could hold up the release of that part of the report until after the election, according to reports.


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