Intelligence Failure and Manipulation

INTELLIGENCE FAILURE AND MANIPULATION -- (Extensions of Remarks - November 18, 2005)

SPEECH OF
HON. RUSH D. HOLT
OF NEW JERSEY
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2005

Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, today I and my Democratic colleagues on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence publicly discussed a critical item of unfinished business for this House--specifically, the need for the committee to undertake a detailed examination of the Iraq weapons of mass destruction (WMD) intelligence failure.

We need to undertake this inquiry because this is not the last time that we will need intelligence that's based on good methods, critical thinking--in fact, skeptical thinking that really looks at the uncertainties in the intelligence.

We have to learn to get this right. There will be other times when we need it.

Now, the President has said that those who are raising questions about the war in Iraq and how we got there are trying to rewrite history. Actually, that's not true. History is not being rewritten. History cannot be written because no one has allowed the facts to be assembled.

That is what we are talking about here. We have tried, but we have been blocked repeatedly in our attempts to do so.

This matter is of critical importance. And it is, of course, ironic that at a time when we are fighting a war in the name of democracy and the freedoms, including freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry, that here we are stymied in our freedom of inquiry.

And it is freedom of inquiry not for political points or our personal curiosity. It is so that we can, for the future, have an intelligence system that is based on critical thinking, skeptical thinking and good methods. That is the point.

Let me just say that the line that we hear is, ``There is not much that needs to be investigated, there is not much need for oversight, because you knew all this all along. And furthermore, it is unpatriotic.''

It is unimportant, and yet if you ask for it, you are unpatriotic. I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you can't have it both ways.

I wish I could say that the refusal to investigate the Iraq intelligence failure is an isolated case. It is not.

For over 2 years, I've pressed this House to investigate how it was that the name and cover status of a serving CIA Clandestine Services officer made its way from the CIA to the White House political office and thence to the press.

Eight separate times in eight separate votes, the leadership of this Congress shut down any effort to get the information about the release of the identity of an intelligence employee. Conducting oversight of this matter is something that is central to our responsibility to look after the wellbeing and effectiveness of those people that we ask to take risks for us around the world.

Yet in eight separate votes, it was shut down.

Mr. Speaker, it's time--indeed well past time--for this Congress to do its job and conduct oversight of these and other intelligence matters. We cannot protect our Nation from future threats if we do not learn the full lessons of conflicts past, and this is especially critical in the realm of intelligence. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us in this effort.

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