WILLblog

Today the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held a news conference to release to the public the Committee's Report on Pre-War Intelligence on Iraq. NPR provided live coverage, and you can hear the RealAudio archive on the NPR site. The report is critical of the CIA, to say the least. Basically, we got just about everything wrong: U.S. claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and connections with al Qaeda, were simply not true. "We went to war in Iraq based on false claims," said committee Vice Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Later on All Things Considered, Rockefeller made clear that had he known the truth when he voted in favor of the invasion, he would have voted against. Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) said he's not sure how he would have voted. Does this play in the Presidential campaign? Maybe, but the second half of the committee's report, the part focused on the Administration's role in the flawed intelligence, isn't due to be released until after the election. Sorry for the too-cute gavel gif, but that's the least of our worries.