Press Release - DeWine Shelved, Then Dismissed, Report on Growing Terrorist Threat
DeWine Shelved, Then Dismissed, Report on Growing Terrorist Threat
AMHERST, OH - The day before he aired a new television advertisement touting his membership on the Senate Intelligence Committee, incumbent Republican Senator Mike DeWine yesterday admitted that despite possessing the recently declassified National Intelligence Estimate since April, he only read the report yesterday. After reading the report, in which 16 of the administration's intelligence agencies agreed that the War in Iraq was increasing terrorism by mobilizing jihadists, DeWine dismissed the report, saying: "I'm just telling you, I'm looking at this report. There's nothing of great significance in this report" [Plain Dealer 9/28/06].
"After voting to lead our country to war with Iraq based on false intelligence, Senator DeWine's continued failure to exert any oversight as a member of the Intelligence Committee is shocking," said U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who voted against going to war with Iraq and has called for a winning exit strategy. "The Bush administration's own intelligence agencies agreed in the National Intelligence Estimate that the War in Iraq has created a rallying point for jihadists, and has left the United States increasingly vulnerable to terrorist threats. Senator DeWine continues to stand with President Bush in support of a stay-the-course Iraq strategy regardless of its threat to our nation's security."
This month, Senator DeWine disagreed with a majority of members on the Senate Intelligence Committee and signed a dissent to a bi-partisan report documenting intelligence failures in Iraq that led the Bush administration to falsely draw connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. DeWine has stonewalled the investigation of the false intelligence that led the nation to war with Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that never materialized, and voted against establishing an independent commission to investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq [S 1689, 10/17/03, #395; CQ Daily Monitor, 10/17/03].
http://sherrodbrown.com/press/releases/663/