Secret WMD Session Fades in Senate

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/50_6/news/6234-1.html (subscription required)

The top Senators on the Intelligence Committee now oppose the idea of holding what would be a historic closed-door session of the chamber’s full membership to deal with intelligence regarding the war in Iraq.

Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the panel, and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the panel’s vice chairman, said Tuesday that they did not support holding an executive session of the Senate with all 100 Senators and just a few aides present and sworn to secrecy, citing the release of last week’s report on pre-war intelligence and their ongoing probe of other Iraq-related issues.

Agreed to five months ago by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as a proper way to examine intelligence, momentum for the executive session has waned seriously, according to GOP and Democratic aides.

One GOP aide hinted that with Roberts and Rockefeller both opposed to the idea, the chances for the historic session — the last such executive session was held in 1999 during the Clinton impeachment trial — were even more remote.

[wurzel]

1. That's a session none of them want.

It would come out that very few of them read the intelligence in the first place.

[UpInArms]

2. it might show how little "intelligence" is found on

Capitol Hill.