Chairman Waxman Responds to WH -Fielding's May 18 Letter = Iraq Intelligence and Nuclear Evidence

[L. Coyote]

Chairman Waxman Responds to White House Counsel Fred Fielding's May 18 Letter
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Iraq Intelligence and Nuclear Evidence, Correspondence Regarding the Testimony of Secretary Rice
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1339

In a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, Chairman Waxman explains that, as the principal oversight body of the House of Representatives, it is the Committee’s constitutional obligation to investigate the role played by the White House and National Security Council in the false and misleading intelligence that precipitated the war in Iraq.
Documents and Links

* Letter to Fred Fielding - http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070529121026.pdf

[L. Coyote]

1. White House Responds to Chairman Waxman's May 4th Letter Regarding Pre-War Intelligence

White House Responds to Chairman Waxman's May 4th Letter Regarding Pre-War Intelligence
Friday, May 18, 2007
Administration Oversight, Iraq Intelligence and Nuclear Evidence, Correspondence Regarding the Testimony of Secretary Rice
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1333

White House Counsel Fred Fielding responds to Chairman Waxman's May 4, 2007 letter regarding pre-war intelligence and claims that Iraq attempted to obtain nuclear material.
Documents and Links

* Letter from Fred Fielding - http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070523155241.pdf

[babylonsister]

2. This happened a week ago; they're on vacation AFAIK now. nt

[L. Coyote]

4. There is a difference between Recess and Vacation

Congress is in Recess. Some members ad staff are working very hard nearly all the time. Waxman is in that group, beyond a doubt.

[L. Coyote]

8. Kick for the evening crowd.

[Supersedeas]

3. How will Fielding be remembered because of his efforts for the Bushists?

[L. Coyote]

6. The typical pattern = hired by big lobbying firm for millions $$$$$$

[L. Coyote]

5. Great Letter. = "...express authority ... to "conduct investigations of any matter" "

Thank you for your letter of May 18,2007, letter asking about the legislative purposes
served by the Committee's investigation into whether White House officials misled the Congress
and the public about Iraq's efforts to obtain uranium from Africa and its nuclear threat.

.........
The Oversight Committee
has been given express authority under the House rules to "conduct investigations of any matter"
so that the Committee can report "findings and recommendations" to 'oany other standing
committee having jurisdiction over the matter involved."'

express authority ... to "conduct investigations of any matter"
so that the Committee can report "findings and recommendations" to 'oany other standing
committee having jurisdiction over the matter involved."'

....one example, the false and misleading intelligence that precipitated the war in
Iraq has called into question the perforlnance of the National Security Council,....

....new oversight and accountability mechanisms, may be necessary to prevent the
recunence of the mistakes, distortions, and misjudgments that led the nation to war in lraq.
Congress has a constitutional obligation to examine what went wrong inside the White House ....

....The record is clear that the actions of
White House offrcials regarding Iraq's efforts to obtain uranium from Afüca and Iraq's nuclear
threathave never been investigated. It is also clear that Congress has a direct legislative purpose
in examining this matter. lndeed, I believe Congress would be derelict in its constitutional
obligations if it did not pursue this inquiry. The cost of the war in American and Iraqi lives lost
- and in American tax dollars spent - has been heavy. Our system of checks and balances
would be meaningless if Congress were unable to investigate whether the National Security
Council, the National Security Advisor, and other White House officials acted in the national
interest......

[L. Coyote]

7. Lengthy list of officials got accurate Iraq forecast = HADLEY serving under Condoleezza Rice

Lengthy list of officials got accurate Iraq forecast
JAMES GERSTENZANG; Los Angeles Times
Published: May 26th, 2007 01:00 AM
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/71622.html

WASHINGTON – Two months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies twice warned the Bush administration that establishing a democracy there would prove a difficult challenge and that al-Qaida would use political instability to increase its operations, according to a Senate report released Friday.

The report, issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee, brought to light once-classified warnings that accurately forecasted many of the specific military and political problems the Bush administration and Iraqi officials have faced since the invasion in March 2003.

The report also details that these warnings were distributed to senior officials with daily access to President Bush and others at the top of the administration.

Although many names were left blank to protect those in the intelligence community, the report’s 81-page list of those who received the predictions included figures throughout the national security bureaucracy. One of those was Stephen Hadley, the president’s national security adviser, who at the time was the deputy national security adviser, serving under Condoleezza Rice.

The Senate report, unlike previous studies of the buildup to the war, did not focus on the flawed information provided by the intelligence community. Those included assessments that overstated Iraq’s potential for developing weapons of mass destruction.

The report spotlighted two documents prepared in January 2003 by the National Intelligence Council; one was titled “Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq, the other “Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq.”

The papers warned that: .................

[L. Coyote]

9. What Intelligence Officials Knew about the Forged Iraq Nuclear Evidence

Has it been a long wait for oversight or what?? Finally, Waxman is the boss!

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, MINORITY OFFICE REP. HENRY A. WAXMAN, RANKING MEMBER
JUNE 2003
What Intelligence Officials Knew about the Forged Iraq Nuclear Evidence

http://reform.democrats.house.gov/documents/20040628074902-63321.pdf