FLASHBACK: Pre-War Intelligence Report Coverup

Back in September, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its definitive PHASE II report (.pdf) that debunked once and for all the flimsy and manipulated intelligence the Bush administration used to make it's case for war. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Carl Levin claimed there were still "deeply disturbing" portions of the report being kept classified to politically protect the White House.

Click here for the video.

At the time, then-Chairman Pat "Memory Pills" Roberts, who, according to Senator Rockefeller, was pressured by Vice President Cheney to suppress the inquiry, showed no interest in declassifying the report in full. Now that Rockefeller chairs the committee, it's finally time we got the whole truth about the lies that brought us to war. (Read the full story.)

And this from ThinkProgress: Vice President Dick Cheney exerted “constant” pressure on the former chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), to stall an investigation into the Bush administration’s use of false intelligence on Iraq. The so-called Phase II report on the administration’s use of pre-war intelligence was delayed for over two years. Two of its five portions were finally released in Sept. 2006.

Rockefeller said that he knew Cheney attended regular policy meetings in which he conveyed White House directions to conservative Capitol Hill staffers. They “just had to go along with the administration,” he said. Here are examples of Roberts’ vacillations on the Phase II investigation per White House orders:

• “We’ll proceed with Phase II. It is a priority. I made my commitment and it will get done.” [Press conference, 7/9/04]
• “I don’t know if we can get it done before the election.” [Meet the Press, 7/11/04]
• “That [the Phase II report] is basically on the back burner.” [UPI, 3/10/05]
• “I don’t think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further.” [U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 3/31/05]
• “To go though that exercise, it seems to me, in a post-election environment - we didn’t see how we could do that and achieve any possible progress. I think everybody pretty well gets it.” [U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 3/31/05]
• “I’m perfectly willing to do it, and that’s what we agreed to do, and that door is still open.” [Meet the Press, 4/10/05]
• “It isn’t like it’s been delayed. As a matter of fact, it’s been ongoing. As a matter of fact, we have been doing our work on Phase II.” [Senate Floor Speech, 11/1/05]
• “I don’t know the relevancy of that.” [CNN, 11/1/05]
• “We’ve been working on that. We will finish it. We had it scheduled for this week.” [Face the Nation, 11/6/05]