Kerry and Fiengold make statements on Iraq Intelligence

SENATOR JOHN KERRY (D-MA): “For a year and a half, the Republican leadership in Congress has refused again and again to complete Phase II of their investigation into pre-war intelligence failures. All the requests I and other Senators have made of the Intelligence Committee for more information have been pushed aside. The Republican leadership has been complicit in a political cover-up of the decisions that led to war. Nothing could be more serious or more deserving of full public disclosure. The families of our troops deserve the truth, as does every American. Now that one of the chief architects of the war in Iraq has been indicted for related crimes, it is more important than ever to know how intelligence was presented to the Congress.

“The country and the Congress were misled into war. It is deeply troubling that the Republicans in Washington are so afraid to share the truth with the American people. Clearly it will require an independent, outside investigation to get to the bottom of this.”

SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD (D-WI): “I applaud Senator Reid’s effort to focus the Senate on what should be our top priority – our country’s national security. I voted against the Iraq war because I was concerned it would become a dangerous diversion from the need to keep Americans safe from terrorism. The war has become all of that and worse and that’s why I have proposed a flexible target date of December 2006 for an end to our primary military mission in Iraq. This Administration’s policy has made our country weaker militarily and economically, and it has emboldened and fostered the terrorist networks that threaten us.

Debating our nation’s security in closed session does not undermine consideration of the pending reconciliation bill, as some Republicans have tried to argue. Even if Democrats wanted to, they could not prevent the measure from coming to a vote. Far from obstructing the Senate’s business, Democrats are advancing it. Senator Reid has finally succeeded in overcoming the real obstruction we have seen in the Senate, namely thwarting efforts to get a complete and truthful accounting of the Administration’s activities in their rush to war.