Senator calls for independent investigation of Iraq intelligence data

Iowa’s Democratic Senator is among those who are calling for an independent, bipartisan investigation of the intelligence data President Bush used to justify going to war in Iraq. Senator Tom Harkin says a new, independent commission should investigate how intelligence data was used by administration officials responsible for our policy with Iraq. He says a careful, independent review is essential to ensure the American people and our allies have confidence in U.S. intelligence assessments on Iraq and other countries. Harkin says the President’s National Security Advisor dismisses the criticism about Bush citing now-discredited intelligence data in the State of the Union Address, as it was just 16 words out of the whole speech. But Harkin says Bush used Saddam’s nuclear capabilities as a primary reason for going to war, and Harkin says Bush used the word “nuclear” 20 times in a speech he delivered in Ohio, in which he talked about “peril” in the form of a mushroom cloud. Harkin says the Bush Administration can’t continue to “mislead and misdirect” because “the cost in money and lives and our national reputation is too great.” The idea of an independent commission to investigate U.S. intelligence prior to the war was debated in the U.S. Senate yesterday, and it was voted down.