Did Bush pressure CIA? [View All]

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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspoli103887376jul10,0,6026014.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

WASHINGTON - Friday's Senate report on intelligence on Iraq drew a new battle line in this fall's presidential campaign by failing to settle perhaps the most controversial question of all: Did the White House pressure the CIA to concoct reasons to invade Iraq?

The question split the Senate Intelligence Committee's otherwise bipartisan unanimity on the intelligence failures in Iraq, with Democrats saying they had a "major disagreement" with Republicans over the issue.

Republicans noted in the report's conclusion that no intelligence analysts said they were pressured. But Democrats objected, saying there was ample evidence that top Bush administration officials had intimidated analysts to twist their judgments about whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

In the end, the committee decided to put off consideration of the Bush administration's use of intelligence, assuring the issue a prominent role in the presidential campaign.

"The committee's report fails to fully explain the environment of intense pressure in which the intelligence community officials were asked to render judgments on matters relating to Iraq when the most senior officials in the Bush administration had already forcefully and repeatedly stated their conclusions publicly," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the committee's ranking minority member.

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