Frist Freezes Senate Probe of Prewar Iraq Data

[kskiska]

By Walter Pincus and Dana Priest

Angry about a leaked Democratic memo, the Republican leadership of the Senate yesterday took the unusual step of canceling all business of the committee investigating prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called on the author of the memo -- which laid out a possible Democratic strategy to extend the investigation to include the White House and executive branch -- to "identify himself or herself . . . disavow this partisan attack in its entirety" and deliver "a personal apology" to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Only if those steps are taken, Frist said, "will it be possible for the committee to resume its work in an effective and bipartisan manner -- a manner deserving of the confidence of other members of the Senate and the executive branch."

Roberts followed Frist on the floor and said that unless the Democratic members "properly" address the issue, "I am afraid that it will be impossible to return to 'business as usual' in the committee."

A committee meeting scheduled for yesterday was canceled, and none has been scheduled for next week, according to a senior committee staff member.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14010-2003Nov7.html

[mike_c]

1. Frist to Bush*....

I got yer back, dubya.

[ahimsa]

7. Tenet to Bush (wishful thinking)

CIA Chief Tenet called on the leaker -- who exposed a CIA operative and potentially all of her contacts -- to "identify himself or herself . . . disavow this unpatriotic and treasonous attack in its entirety" and deliver "a personal apology" to the American people. Oh, and to spend the next 20 years in prison.

Only if those steps are taken, Tenet said, "will it be possible for the Agency to resume its work in an effective manner -- a manner deserving of the confidence of the American people."

</wishful thinking>

[mike_c]

10. LOL....

That made my night!

[librechik]

48. Well, at least he's not politicizing intelligence!

<sarcasm off>

HA!

[Rose Siding]

2. Dems should go ahead with what the memo outlined

Get on with it. The repubs won't rest til the whole caucus is gelded. They have a king to protect.

[Cocoa]

46. I'll call Sen. Durbin asking him to do this

the republicans are covering up for Bush, and their complaining about that stupid memo is their excuse.

[HereSince1628]

3. Repubs r guilty of "date rape" the dems need to pursure it alone.

There is no such thing as bipartisanship on the select committee on intelligence. Its simply tyranny of the majority; watch out Mr Frist, what goes around comes around...

[mw]

4. Whoever wrote it: stand up, fight back

It's a load of bull that the memo is "partisan".

Stand up, take CREDIT (not blame) for the memo, and get the ball rolling on GIVING REPUBLICANS AND BUSH HELL.

The Republicans have shined a light on this. Now use it against them.

[Voltaire99]

13. Yes. Fight or be destroyed.

Will they have the nerve to fight? They'd better.

[RapidCreek]

21. Nope they won't fight...

they'll whine....just like they have done for the past 3 years. That's why we'l be enjoying another four years of Bush.

RC

[MO_Dem]

5. They must have a LOT to hide

This is outrageous--Duhbya really HAS changed the tone in Washington, for the WORSE!

[maggrwaggr]

6. Good God what a transparent scumbag

he probably planted the memo himself

[Old and In the Way]

9. Exactly, I beginning to think that the "evidence" was made to justify

the stuffing of the investigation.

Really, the Republicans don't use strategy in their political manuvuering on bills and investigations? Since when does the tactical discussions of an investigation outweigh the actual investigation itself?

No, I think they dropped this on Hannity and are using this to shut down an obviously criminal action by this administration.

[glitch]

17. just what I was thinking nt

[Cocoa]

47. I don't think so

if they'd planted it, they would have made the memo incriminating. Read the memo, it's nothing.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. Lucky for Frist the Repugs had operatives hacking into Dems computers

so they could save the country from these evil people who want truth from the WH.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Is this getting any press coverage?

You gotta know there's some real stuff in there. Just remember that 5 minority members can issue subpoenas and go ahead with their own investigation if the majority stonewalls them. I think they know they've got something, and they'll let it rip now.

All of a sudden the memo makes sense, as a desperate and coordinated attempt to paint the investigation as unpatriotic and squelch it. If this incredible ploy works, democracy is dead.

On edit:
And note that this is a Pincus story. That means the CIA is weighing in on getting things out. All of a sudden this is getting interesting.

Rockefeller, prodded by the Democratic leadership, did not want the blame for any exaggerations of the threat posed by Iraq to rest largely with the CIA; instead he wanted the panel to investigate the separate question of how the administration used the information it was given.

The memo that set off yesterday's events was written by a committee Democratic staff aide and laid out for Rockefeller possible steps that could be taken by Democrats to press their approach. It also proposed publicizing any limitations the Republican majority put on the inquiry and exposing what it termed "the senior administration officials who made the case for a unilateral, preemptive war."

[iam]

12. See?

Just like a thousand of us said when this first broke, this is pretext to stop the investigation. Conservatives are vile and sick.

[Skittles]

18. YUP - IT'S CLASSIC ROVE IN ACTION

f***ing sick

[Snellius]

39. Absolutely classic Rove MO

I've been reading "Bush's Brain". Rove's MO works like this: if you want to steal your opponent's money, for example, you first accuse them of trying to pick your pocket, scream your head off, demand retribution, call your goons, take their money, and write the story about how you got robbed.

[stevedeshazer]

20. Right

This whole circle-jerk has gone on for three days in order to provide cover for Frist to stonewall the investigation.

[truthisfreedom]

14. has anyone admitted that the memo is real?

n/m

[Jackpine Radical]

19. Yes. It was written by a Rockefeller aide

but apparently not circulated--which certainly makes you wonder how it got leaked. Stolen from Rockefeller's trash? Doesn't he have a shredder?

[RainDog]

15. fux news is just a right wing whore

but it would be nice if real journalists would memorize this quote:

"The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.

And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

In my view, far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other newspapers should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly.

In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam war, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do."

US Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black

gee, dubya, why are you trying to create a distraction around your administration's compromise of national security via WMD and Plame, your lies that unconstitutionally led us into a wrong war, your delusions which have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and killed or wounded thousands of Americans?

It is the height of hypocrisy and yet more Bush shit for Dubya to call for democracy in the middle east when he is so contemptuous of its separation of powers and checks and balances in America.

The truth shall set America free, which is why Bush treats truth like a prisoner at Gitmo.

[ramblin_dave]

16. Here's what Josh Marshall has to say:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_11_02.html#002178

[librechik]

22. Hmm, looks like the Dems struck a nerve

I think it was the "everything we can do within the rules" part of the memo that bugged Frist--he can't allow the Dems to exercise their rights! That would offend God!

[frustrated_lefty]

23. Contact Frist at

http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.ContactForm

[TacticalPeek]

24. Sounds like the wheels are coming off.

And its time for the gloves to come off, too.

Roberts plainly lacks the skill to finesse an acceptable coverup. He and many senior R's have now cast their lot with the spirit of 'Nixon' and against the truth.

Its better this way. The committee dems have no choice now but to start their own investigation. They, like the 911 commission, must now subpoena and must take sworn testimony. The R's will regret that they pushed it to this. They have turned up the dial on the toaster.

[1songbird]

25. Send Sen. Rockefeller a letter

of support. This whole memo thing has just disgusted me to the point where I said to hell with it and wrote him a letter asking him to take a stand for democracy. Constituent or not, his actions will affect us all.

[e-mail]

[PartyPooper]

26. Thank you! I will.

First thing in the morning!

:dem:

[1songbird]

28. Great! I hope others will do the same

[Snellius]

41. .

.

[MoonAndSun]

49. I just sent my e-mail to Senator Rockefeller...

thanks for the link to his office.

[gulliver]

27. This will backfire.

I think it's just what the Dems need. It's like Gingrich shutting down the government only worse. Frist can't shut down an investigation of war and intelligence because he's angry that the Dems want to know the Bush Administration's role. That looks like a cover-up.

A Washington Post article with a Pincus/Priest byline ... I'd say it looks fairly important.

[wabeewoman]

29. OK I've seen DUers

come up with solutions to any number of problems. We need those good brains to come up with some real solutions to what the dems are up against. How do you fight this kind of thing? How do you fight the refusal to release information(on 9/11, on the economy, on Iraq etc). I seriously don't know and the dems in congress don't seem to either. The dems seem totally lost on how to deal with these guys who continue to change the rules, ignore the rules or just make them up as they go along. Do they just stand and yell LIAR LIAR at the top of their lungs???

[Fovea]

31. You step up to the plate and swing

There is far more to lose from silence and letting NeoCons define the issue as Democratic Party disloyalty, when the real issue is foreign policy drafted with goals other than the best interest of the American people.

They dont just stand there yelling liar, they throw the whole party of personal responsibility and morality back at them. How responsible or moral is it to stonewall and lie in order to cover what is misdemeanor level incompitance at best, and simple treason at worst.

All of these secrecy issues wrap around an important underlying theme of the Bush Whitehouse-- The secrecy and mendacity protect the PNAC plan for the middle east. One Dem or another should hit Bush with his lies and another should hit Cheney over energy and corporate accounting fraud EVERY DAY.

The truth, told simply every day, is what one must do to combat a strategy of lies.

[Guaranteed]

63. That's right....you call it like it IS.

Call them what they are- LYING CHISELERS.

[TryingToWarnYou]

38. Here is what you do (or what I hope they do)

Compile every fact of the issues we have asked for.

Do not bring partisanship to the table.

Ensure that the American people are educated as to what has happened with repeated requests for this information. This can be achieved possibly through the press, but hopefully it would be accomplished with our elected representatives if they can find their spines long enough to stand up to Bush.

When the facts are challenged, back them up with solid evidence, not partisan rhetoric or slams on this administration. Just the facts, maam.

The further we distance ourselves from a political pissing contest and engage in only facts and truth, they will not be able to fight it.

[Cocoa]

50. the answer is probably technical

Being the minority, there are procedural limits on what they can do.

But at one point, Sen. Levin broke off and started his own investigation when the majority on the armed services committee wasn't cooperating.

And the dems held their own hearings a couple of weeks ago where some ex-CIA officers testified on the Plame affair.

So they'll have to be creative.

[Guaranteed]

64. We've got to call them liars

to their face. We have to reverse the challenge against them...make them prove to the American people that they aren't trying to hide anything with their tactic.

Tell 'em "Hey, you're a bunch of lying chiselers! You're hiding behind this stupid tactic because you don't want the truth to come out. This is just MORE evidence that we went to war on false premises!"

[Oreegone]

30. Rocket Science

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), the committee's ranking Democrat, said he was "really disappointed" with the Republican action. "Whose advantage is it to derail asking the tough questions on prewar intelligence and the use and misuse of it?" he asked.

That would take a brainsurgeon wouldn't it?

I think we need some good liberal political scientists to get busy and get creative.:smoke:

[grasswire]

32. page A 18????

A 18??

An unprecedented act of aggression against the minority and it's buried on page A18??

What the hell is the matter with the Post?

[tlb]

33. The memo gives the republicans near total political cover

in any investigations now underway or yet to come. The memo sponsors a democratic election year agenda in an explicitly bipartisan committee. Accordingly ANY moves or statements the democratic members take hereafter will be viewed in the prism of the memo.

The republicans were handed a comprehensive excuse now to cease the committee's investigation, and later to disregard and belittle any critical revelations as being all part of this same anti-Bush campaign. There is a saying that involves being "too clever by half". That is Rockefeller and his staff.

Rockefeller could have put this behind him and the party if he had immediately repudiated the memo and sacrificed the aide who had drawn it up. He has waited too long now to do this, choosing instead to mutter and complain how the memo was leaked. A memo that itself contemplates such leaks against the republican majority. How seriously can the public take democrat senators' election year criticisms in such a context.

The situation is somewhat similar to the California democratic legislators who several months held a secret meeting on how to aggrevate and take advantage the budget crisis. Unfortunatley for them they unknowingly did so in front of live microphones broadcasting into the press room. Their strategy fatally compromised, the California budget passed shortly thereafter mainly on the republican terms.

The clumsy ineptitude of senior democrats is sometimes breathtaking.

[tedzbear]

34. And so is the deceit of the senior Republicans!

They are getting too smart for their pants.

[xxqqqzme]

58. there is nothing

requiring a retraction or a staffer being fired here.

Good grief!

I'm pissed the rethugs got their grimy claws on it (IF it is real 'n not planted). If the Democrats on the hill do not understand that they R dealing w/ what rules?, gutter, street brawlers, then they need 2 pack their bags 'n find a real job! cuz they sure as shit R not doing what they were elected 2 do.

[radfringe]

35. Standard procedure for GOP-painters

first you "cover-up" the floors/furniture with tarps, then you white wash the area

Frist throws a "tarp" over the investigation because of the memo - next week the GOP-painters arrive and white-wash the whole thing

[Mountainman]

36. This administration will get away with any and all misdeeds

There is no one willing to stand up to them. We are truly living in a facist society. So sad!

[snippy]

37. Are there no republicans left who love their country?

[markus]

40. Well, f--- 'em, then. The Democratic Memo was right

They need to launch an independent investigation outside of GOP control, as the GOP is clearly complicit in obstructing the investigation.

[Snellius]

42. Do Republicans really have spies going through wastebaskets?

It's such a joke. They keep waving around this memo like its some smoking gun but they never read it because they know it doesn't really say anything. (It reminds me of that lawyer's memo about overseas absentee ballots in Florida.) But where did they get this memo? Do Republicans have their own intelligence network within the Intelligence Committee? And who "leaked" it to Hannity? Rove is trying to make this whole brouhaha so confusing that the public will just write it off as politics as usual.

[bushisanidiot]

45. Probably The Same Intelligence That Told 'Em Iraq Had WMD

it's called manufactured evidence. They just have to pay someone to write it and leak it.

[leesa]

43. Ah, this is what the bogus memo was about. Stopping any

investigation. When will they identify the Plame leakers?? GOP Hypocrisy is they name.

[kentuck]

44. Let's agree with the Repubs for once...

It was a plot. Just like Josh Marshall says. "It was a "plot" to have a real investigation. Nothing more.

[Snellius]

51. This means the Republicans have an ongoing spy network

It's just becoming clear what a huge plot is going on here: the Republicans have an ongoing, clandestine spy network in Congress. They have obviously been receiving such undercover information about their Democratic members for a long time. Tapping their computers? A mole? It is also obvious that they wouldn't want to blow their cover unless events called their hand. If it were a Congressional aide, they would have taken this memo to their chairman, not sent it to Sean Hannity. There had to be decision, probably by Rove, to leak this.

But one wonders how long this has been going on?

[maryallen]

57. Who needs a "clandestine spy network" when ...

You've got Zell Miller?

Or Teresa LePore?

[Old and In the Way]

52. kick...

[wabeewoman]

53. It scares the hell out of me.

It just seems like the repugs control all the government and media and IF ( a big IF) the dems do or say anything they attack with all they have and the dems shut up (Kennedy has been quiet lately). Now if the repugs weren't out to destroy this country it wouldn't be so alarming but they are. Its like getting beat up by a bully and not being able to even outsmart him.

[robbedvoter]

54. Pat Roberts tried blaming the CIA - they managed to blame the Dems now

What weasels!The party of personal responsibility!

[kyrasdad]

55. I wrote, clled and faxed...

Of course, being Saturday I got answering machines... but hey... Everyone of us should be getting ahold of our represenatives, Dem or Rep to complain about this...

This was my letter/fax... phone calls I had to keep pausing to not call Frist a fuck...

Sen. Frist stopping the work of the committee investigating 9/11 because of a leaked memo is insane. I hope you and the rest of the Democrats, along with some of the Republicans, I'm sure, stand up and scream on the Sunday talk shows, and every news outlet from now on until he reverses his decision. Placing partisan politics above the safety of America is a slap in the face of every person killed on 9/11, thier families and our men and women serving in the Middle East. I expect a loud outcry against this misuse of power.

Sincerely,
:grr: :nuke: :grr:

[Jack Rabbit]

56. What partisan attack?

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called on the author of the memo -- which laid out a possible Democratic strategy to extend the investigation to include the White House and executive branch -- to "identify himself or herself . . . disavow this partisan attack in its entirety" and deliver "a personal apology" to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. Bush has acted unconcerned about the faulty intelligence prior to the war. The problem is, we should suspect, that faulty intelligence is exactly what he wanted. Real intelligence -- and it was there -- challenged the lies that the Bushies were putting out to justify the war.

No one has been disciplined or fired for the inclusion of the infamous sixteen words in the State of the Union message. No one has been disciplined or fired for the reports of alleged weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. No one has been disciplined or fired for outing Valerie Plame. Indeed, on that last point, Bush simply his shoulders, like it's no big deal, and says we'll probably never know who outed Ms. Plame.

There is nothing partisan about asserting that White House should be investigated. It is the defense of the White House that appears partisan. The behavior of the junta is inexcusable.

[Old and In the Way]

61. I'd add the Energy meetings and the 9/11 investigation

to your list of investigations.

IMHO, everything that's occurred since 9/11 is too distract us from understanding what really happened that day. If there is evidence that Bush knew Al-Qaeda would attack the US and planned to use this to further his personal agenda, he is directly responsible for the deaths of 3000 people that day.

Are all actions since the work of people who are willing to destroy this country to save their collective arses?

[Atman]

59. What a great quote!

"Roberts followed Frist on the floor and said that unless the Democratic members "properly" address the issue, "I am afraid that it will be impossible to return to 'business as usual' in the committee.""

---

No kidding, huh? How can they return to the "business as usual" of covering Bush's ass if democrats keep demanding accountability?

[Dover]

60. Wonder if any of this is linked to the guy who just turned up dead

Sat Nov-08-03 11:04 AM

State Dept. Worker Found Dead Outside Agency

---------

WASHINGTON — A State Department (search) employee was found dead outside the agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday around 5 p.m., Fox News has confirmed.

State Department sources told The Washington Post that John Kokal (search) worked in a unit that dealt with intelligence and research. Sources said he handled classified documents regularly....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102563,00.html

The GOP seems pretty desperate to stop the 9/11 and other ongoing investigations.

[Blaze Diem]

62. Dover..My thoughts exactly!!

Democratically damning memo appears, a dead body, add the sudden cries of "foul play!!" by Frist.. and considering the many reasons Rove & co. needs to create public distractions from Bush's loss in virtually every public opinion poll, I can only suppose that perhaps the invisible threads of the king's invisible clothes may be wearing extremely thin. Poor naked little George!!

We must be getting uncomfortably close to the truth of this administration.
All the more reason to voice such efforts.
E-mail, phone, donate, protest. Speak up. With Bush's poll ratings as low as they are, we do have power in numbers.
Bush needs to be investigated completely, from the bogus election, to 9-11, cronyism, war profiteering, and the Bush lies and motives that led this great Nation astray.
Thanks..Blaze

[Guaranteed]

65. We have to hit them back HARD.

None of this "non-partisan" crap.

We have to flip it back around and attack their attack. Call em liars, tell them they're just trying to cover up the fact that the war was based on a bunch of lies. Use the word LIE- over and over and over. Make it a given that it's just a bunch of lies, and make them PROVE that it WASN'T lies by going over the evidence.

Go all out! What else are they going to do? They've already played their "you're partisan" and "you're unpatriotic" cards. They don't have anything left. Bring out the big guns.

I, personally, love the word "chiseler"- they should make use of it.