Senate Intelligence Committee Drops Iraq Intel Investigation!

This story hasn't received much attention that I know of, so I wanted to post a diary to spread the word.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), released a partial report on the investigation of how the U.S. intelligence community got it wrong on Iraq in July 2004. It was agreed at the time that the more politically sensitive questions -- did the administration put pressure on them to skew the results to support invading Iraq? -- would be left for a second report, after the presidential election. Now, Roberts is trying to quietly drop that line of inquiry, potentially shielding those who were responsible for any malfeasance which took place.

The question of pressure, from Cheney's office, the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, etc is critical to getting at the truth of why we're bogged down in Iraq today. The public has a right to know. There also is the question of motivations, particularly in the case of the Office of Special Plans, which is rendered particularly interesting by the fact that several of the key people in Douglas Feith's shop at the Pentagon have retained defense counsel as a result of the FBI investigation which is looking into possible Israeli espionage.

Obviously, raising the possibility that there was some sort of "agents of influence" operation is a very touchy subject, but I believe the public has a right to know. What evidence did the Senate investigation come up with regarding pressure on the intelligence community, or phony intelligence which was "stovepiped" into the White House from the Pentagon through Cheney's office?

I'm disappointed that this hasn't received more coverage (and action) from the blogosphere. We really all need to be calling our congresspersons and senators and demanding that the investigation continue and publish a publicly available report. The public has a right to know the whole story of how we got into Iraq, wherever that leads, particularly as the question of a possible war with Iran looms on the horizon, with documents related to Iran policy one of the main issues in the espionage investigation.

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