IMPORTANT! - Call Congress about the Intelligence Report!

[wicket]

The Intelligence Report that was released last week is only part of the story. The 2nd part of the report will deal with how the Bush Administration used the Intelligence. Senator Dick Durbin has got more on this in this article:

What's missing is the ways intelligence was used, misused, misinterpreted or ignored by administration policymakers in deciding to go to war and in making the case to the American people that war with Iraq was necessary. The intelligence committee leadership chose to defer these issues to a second report -- one that will not be released until after the November elections.

We must not let them get away with this!!! There was a thread here on DU yesterday about some of the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee urging the public to contact those on the Committee and urge them to release it before the election.

So let's flood them with calls until they release the report, the American people have a right to have this information before voting in the election. I've compiled all of their contact information below, so make calls, send them letters, and spread the word!!!

The general toll-free number for Congress is 1-800-839-5276, and their individual contact info is below. Let's keep this kicked until they agree to release the 2nd part of the report before the election!!!!

On edit: covering this from yesterday.

Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas
Washington Office:
109 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1605
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Vice-Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, D-West Virginia
Washington Office:
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4802
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Orrin Hatch, R-Utah
Washington Office:
104 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4402
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Carl Levin, D-Michigan
Washington Office:
269 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2202
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Mike Dewine, R-Ohio
Washington Office:
140 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3503
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Diane Feinstein, D-California
Washington Office:
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0504
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Christopher Bond, R-Missouri
Washington Office:
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2503
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Ron Wyden, D-Oregon
Washington Office:
516 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3703
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Trent Lott, R-Mississippi
Washington Office:
487 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2403
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Richard Durbin, D-Illinois
Washington Office:
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1304
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Olympia Snowe, R-Maine
Washington Office:
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1903
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Evan Bayh, D-Indiana
Washington Office:
463 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1404
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska
Washington Office:
248 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2705
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

John Edwards, D-North Carolina
Washington Office:
225 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3306
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia
Washington Office:
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1005
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland
Washington Office:
709 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2003
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

John Warner, R-Virginia
Washington Office:
225 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4601
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

[SoCalDem]

1. Call the repubes and tell them you LOVE BUSH, but you cannot

vote for him until his "name is cleared" by the second part of the report :)

[porphyrian]

4. Great idea! Sick, but great! - n/t

[NightOwwl]

5. Hee

Great idea. :evilgrin:

[iconoclastic cat]

10. Oh, that's good...seriously...

But if they actually try to call me on it, I'll be found out very quickly.

[democrat_patriot]

27. Excellent!

Note to any freep lurkers: You should want his name cleared as well.

Or are you scared?

Don't be scared of the truth, however much it may hurt.

[mhr]

2. Actually, You Can Read The Report Here And Senator Rockefeller

lays it out pretty well in his remarks section.

http://web.mit.edu/simsong/www/iraqreport2-textunder.pdf

[iconoclastic cat]

3. About contacting them:

Should I email them? Or will that be ignored? If I do email them, where can I find their email addresses?

[porphyrian]

7. Written letters are taken way more seriously than email. -n/t

[truthspeaker]

45. but written letters have to be security screened now so they're slower

what with the anthrax scare.

[calimary]

46. PLEASE don't let that deter you. Here's what you do:

a) SEND A POSTCARD.

b) Avoid a closed envelope. Write your letter on a piece of 8 1/2 X 11 inch paper. Fold it three ways, as though you were about to insert it into a conventional envelope. Then tape it shut - ONLY ONCE, in the middle, so both sides are open and it is CLEARLY easy to see there's nothing in there but words on paper. Write the address on the back, with your return address, just as though it were on a conventional envelope. Then stamp and send.

The more obviously non-threatening it is, the less trouble you'll have, and the more likely it'll get delivered.

c) if possible, CC the letter to others, so the recipient knows that other eyes are also seeing the same thing. I read a story more than a year ago about a woman who objected to the New York Times' lowballing of crowd size at war protests. She complained, in writing to the times. She also CC'ed the letter to the Washington Post, and I believe, to the Editor & Publisher website. That way, when the New York Times got it, they also saw that others, INCLUDING their prime competitor, got the same thing, and probably were enjoying seeing the enemy chastised, being caught in a mistake. A correction was issued very quickly thereafter. This was in response to complaints about the Times' underestimating crowd size from other protestors who were there and didn't like seeing their huge numbers being discounted, with their complaints ignored and nothing done to rectify it.

By the way - FYI:

Last update: July 9, 2004:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1956556#1956858

This is also available in the Activism/Events forum:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x8816

[wicket]

55. EXCELLENT info!

Thank-you! :)

[redqueen]

8. You can find email addresses or a link to their contact form

at http://www.congress.org

:kick:

[wicket]

9. email

From what I've heard, email is not the best way to contact them, phone calls and letters carry more weight. But hey, emailing them in addition to calling them probably won't hurt :)

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. Confused...

is the report done and not being released or is it in progress and not scheduled to be complete until after the election? I was under the impression that it's a phase two thingie.

Not that it matters in the end...it should be out BEFORE the election either way.

[iconoclastic cat]

12. Good question

I just assumed, until now, that the report was being held up by politics and bureaucracy. If it's done, we have the right to see it, don't we?

[shockingelk]

37. Phase II still under review

From page 3 of the Phase I report:

On February 12, 2004, the Committee unanimously agreed to refine the terms of
reference of the Committee's inquiry. In addition to the matters set forth in the joint release of the Chairman and Vice Chairman on June 20, 2003, the Committee agreed to examine additional issues in two phases. Issues annotated as phase one have been addressed in this report. Issues annotated as phase two are currently under review by the Committee.

[IkeWarnedUs]

39. That's the point

Back in February (9 months before the election and after examining the intelligence failures for months) the Republicans (who are in the majority) convinced the Democrats to organize their findings in two parts.

The Democrats never dreamed it would take so long to get the report out - Part 1 or Part 2.

The bulk of the work for Part 2 is already done. All they need to do is the analysis and to finish writing the report.

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

Today on MSNBC they said the president is refusing to give the Senate Intelligence Committee a one page report on what he knew and didn't know before the war. A one page summary. And Bush told them to get Cheneyed.

We have to hold their feet to the fire. We can't let the Republicans on the Committee supress their information because it is embarassing to the Bush administration.

THE REPUBLICANS ARE THE ONES POLITICIZING THIS!

Call the Senate Intelligence Committee office (toll free) and ask they why the report can't be released until after the election. Ask them if it is just because of the Committee vote or if there is another reason. There isn't. Right now the Chief Counsel for the Committee is supposed to be "getting back to me" with an answer. I told him (on voice mail) that if he can't get back to me with an answer to make sure the people who answer the phone have the answer.

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

[wicket]

13. Yesterday

In the thread from yesterday, Senator Feinstein said that the report is more than 80% done, and it can definitely be done before the election, but the Republican leadership is trying to hold off it's release.

[redqueen]

14. IIRC Durbin stated in the press conference that they only have 20% left

to complete -- no reason this should be delayed.

[redqueen]

11. So glad you started a new thread! Be sure to mention the OSP!

PLEASE ask them to investigate the Office of Special Plans' role in the intelligence gathering process!

I've been telling all the staffers that they're not fooling us. The media may be keeping silent but we won't forget!

[wicket]

15. Office of Special Plans

What is the Office of Special Plans, is that the group that Doug Feith runs? I can't believe that I didn't know there was a 2nd part of the report until I read DU yesterday. Our press is non-existant!!!! :grr:

[redqueen]

16. They know who writes their checks!

Yep, Feith & friends run it, Rummy set it up!

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/leopold11.html

A half-dozen former CIA agents investigating prewar intelligence have found that a secret Pentagon committee, set up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in October 2001, manipulated reams of intelligence information prepared by the spy agency on the so-called Iraqi threat and then delivered it to top White House officials who used it to win support for a war in Iraq.

(snip)

The ad-hoc committee, called the Office of Special Plans, headed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and other Pentagon hawks, described the worst-case scenarios in terms of Iraq's alleged stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and claimed the country was close to acquiring nuclear weapons, according to four of the CIA agents, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the information is still classified, who conducted a preliminary view of the intelligence.

The agents said the Office of Special Plans is responsible for providing the National Security Council and Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice and Rumsfeld with the bulk of the intelligence information on Iraq's weapons program that turned out to be wrong. But White House officials used the information it received from the Office of Special Plans to win support from the public and Congress to start a war in Iraq even though the White House knew much of the information was dubious, the CIA agents said.

For example, the agents said the Office of Special Plans told the National Security Council last year that Iraq's attempt to purchase aluminum tubes were part of a clandestine program to build an atomic bomb. The Office of Special Plans leaked the information to the New York Times last September. Shortly after the story appeared in the paper, Bush and Rice both pointed to the story as evidence that Iraq posed a grave threat to the United States and to its neighbors in the Middle East, even though experts in the field of nuclear science, the CIA and the State Department advised the White House that the aluminum tubes were not designed for an atomic bomb.

more...

[wicket]

18. Thanks!

Very informative :)

[redqueen]

19. My pleasure :-)

Aaaaand :kick:

[shockingelk]

38. Ask about the PDB as well!

The Committee set out to examine (p 1):

whether were properly disseminated to policymakers in the executive branch and Congress.

But the White House prohibited them from doing so in a complete manner (p 3):

The Committee's request to review Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs) relevant only to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities and links to terrorists was denied by the White House.

[redqueen]

40. Good call!

Now I have to call them all again! :evilgrin:

[IkeWarnedUs]

41. Keep calling

Call each office every day.

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

Call each day until they can give us another reason why the report won't come out until after the election. Is it just because the Republican majority in the Committee says so?

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

Call each day until they agree to get to work on finishing this report ASAP.

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

Call each day until the report is released.

[wicket]

42. kick!

:kick:

[redqueen]

43. Right on!

:yourock:

[wicket]

56. kick!

[redqueen]

17. Time for the first

:kick: back to page 1!

[wicket]

20. I spoke with a staffer in Carl Levin's office

We spoke for a few minutes, she said that he is really trying to get this report out before the election, but not to hold our breath. Which is why it's important that everyone call their offices and leave messages and send them letters!!!!

[redqueen]

21. Especially the repubs, I think

I focused on them first. You just know they're the ones holding it back.

[redqueen]

22. Kick!

:kick:

[wicket]

23. kick!

[faithnotgreed]

24. kick for justice

[IkeWarnedUs]

25. What the Senators said on Friday

I taped the C-Span coverage of the release of the Senate Intelligence Report. Here is what I transcribed from the press conferences by Senators Rockefeller and then Wyden and Feinstein. My words are in parentheses and the bold accents are mine.

SEN. ROCKEFELLER: I have one comment I need to make, and that is that if we're serious about doing intelligence reforms, why do we have to be somehow limited by the fact that the leadership in the Senate and the House are saying that we're out of here after 20 legislative days?

We could work through August. We can work through September. We can come back after the election. We routinely did that in previous years, often working up until December 22nd.

This is the most dangerous moment in American history, the most devastating event in American history was 9/11. And the thought that somehow we can't get this done before the end of the year simply escapes me as an adequate rationale to honor the families of those who died and to protect the families and people who are still living, but may be in a lot more danger.

---------------

This I transcribed from the press conference with Senators Wyden and Feinstein:

SEN. WYDEN: (Senator Wyden shows page 50 from the report which is almost completely blacked out and he talks about the “wrestling” that goes on to get as much of their repot public as possible.)

Finally, given the public interest and public attention in this matter, we were able to wrestle a substantial portion out. That is what you and the American people are going to see.

The fact of the matter is this is not a fair process and it is not a process that is in the interest of the American people. It is absolutely critical that documents that need to be protected from a National Security standpoint are protected. But again and again we see that a lot of times these documents are not protected for National Security reasons, they are protected for political security reasons to protect individuals from embarrassment.

<snip>

SEN. WYDEN: I think it is absolutely imperative that the second part of our report come out before the elections. The American people have a right to know how that faulty intelligence was used.

The reason why is because bad intelligence and bad policy are not mutually exclusive. You can have both. I happen to think that’s what you had here. You had faulty intelligence that was then independently compounded by an administration looking for every conceivable rationale for going to war.

So, a lot of people in Washington are betting that part two of this report won’t come out before the election. I just hope that the Congress insist that it does, that all of you and others are aware that the heavy lifting for the Committee is still ahead and we have got to get that second part that deals with how intelligence was used out.

<snip>

QUESTION PERIOD
(The senators were asked why they voted for the two part report in February. Sen. Feinstein said they didn’t think it would take this long and that the second half would come out so late.)

SEN. WYDEN: It was really a question of basic math. We didn’t have the votes (single laugh from Sen. Feinstein) in order to have them both come out together. I think it would have been in the public interest to have it come out together. It was just that simple.

I’ll also say though, that between now and November there is ample time to get this out. There is ample time to make sure that the two are linked.

Again, Senator Feinstein and I have spent a lot of time, both on the committee and in our work in the Senate, trying to be bi-partisan. You’ve heard us talk about two pieces of legislation - the question of a (CIA) Director and the legislation Senator Lott and I are pursuing. Unfortunately you cannot drain, this time of the year, politics out of anything and nobody is naive and suggests otherwise.

I do think that it is so important to the country - this question of how intelligence was used - that we’ve got to find a way to get this out. I think if people understand - first that its doable and how important it is - we’ll get it out before November.

QUESTION, EPSTEIN OF THE CHRONICLE: Senator (Feinstein), what’s your opinion of this? Should it be before the election?

SEN. FEINSTEIN: Oh yes, I agree with Senator Wyden.

QUESTION: What’s your impression of the Committee’s report, their work, their status? How complete are they in their findings of how it was used? 50%, 60%? I mean, do they have a lot of work to go? Not much work to go?

SEN. FEINSTEIN: I think the great bulk of the work has been done. I think probably 80% or more there. The rest is just taking these findings and relating them to how they were used by the administration. That’s pretty easy to do because you have the statements made publicly and those statements had to be based on intelligence. The only, I think, question mark in all of this is are there things the administration saw that we didn’t see? I mean, we know the president receives a daily brief that we don’t see. Otherwise, if there are any other items that they have received that we don’t have, that will have to be brought out in this study.

SEN. WYDEN: There’s one other point on this question on the next round ahead for the committee and how the intelligence was used. You simply cannot have accountability unless you get the second part of the report out. In other words, everybody had been talking, well, so and so has been absolved. It’s really the fault of this sector and not the fault of that sector.

The whole point of the second stage of the report is to get the accountability that the American people are asking for. Again and again they’ve said, we’ve heard for years - I mean literally - all of you can go look at your Lexis Nexus and you can see intelligence failures going back certainly two decades. There are remarkable parallels between reports that highlight intelligence failures.

The question is whether this time there’s going to be anything different and whether there’s going to be accountability and whether, in the future, people like yourselves and members of the intelligence committee don’t have to spend weeks and weeks trying to keep most of our reports from looking like that.* Because I can tell you, if it wasn’t for the public attention and public visibility, that we have been able to put on this issue, a good chunk of the report, in my opinion, would have ended up with huge sections blacked out. You got a page from the report right there.

[wicket]

26. Thank-you!!!

This is very much appreciated :)

[redqueen]

28. Great job trasncribing all that!

Must've been a lot of work. Thanks so much... glad you posted it here, too!

[IkeWarnedUs]

29. What I say when I call

I have called the Senate Intelligence Committee office and the offices of all of the members.

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

When I call I say, "I have been following the issue of the second half of the Senate Intelligence report and want to be sure I understand what is happening. If I understand correctly, the reason the second half of the report won't be released until after the election is because the majority of committee members (the Republicans) voted to release it then. Is that the whole problem, or is there some other reason why it can't be released sooner?"

The woman at the Committee office said she didn't know, but transfered me to the Chief Counsel's office to leave my question on his voice mail. I did and said if he couldn't get back to me individually, make sure the people answering the phone get the answer because I will call back tomorrow and every day until I do understand what the problem is.

Then I called the office of every Senator on the Committee. No one had an answer except to say the Committee vote is the only reason they know of.

Hammer away at them. Senator Wyden's office said they are getting a lot of calls.

We can do this!

[wicket]

30. letters too!

I'm working on a letter right now that I will copy to all of them. This has to come out!!!

[redqueen]

31. Kick for writing and calling too!

:kick:

[wicket]

34. kick!

:kick:

[wicket]

44. kick!

:kick:

[wicket]

52. kick!

[wicket]

53. kick!

[faithnotgreed]

32. kick for democracy in action

[redqueen]

33. And another

:kick:

[wicket]

57. And another!

:kick:

[IkeWarnedUs]

35. We can do this

Call and ask them why the report is not going to be released until after the election. Make them give you a reason. Call the Senate Intelligence Committee, each of the member's offices, Frisk and Daschle, your own Senators. What the hell, call them all.

Call Congress toll free 800-839-5276

:kick:

[wicket]

36. right on!

:kick:

[calimary]

48. KICK!

[Wind Dancer]

47. Amazing that WH demanded that Vice Chair

Rockefeller apologize for his statements regarding this report. He refused - so let's keep calling and writing everyday on this issue. Senator Rockefeller's comments are extremely disturbing, I watched him speak and he looks AFRAID!

[wicket]

50. sooooo frustrating!

:kick:

[calimary]

59. Kick-ez vous!

This is important! Let's keep it up top.

[Wind Dancer]

49. Kick!

:kick:

[ClassWarrior]

51. kick

:kick:

[wicket]

54. I sent 20 letters to Congress on this yesterday

Keep them coming!!! :D

[faithnotgreed]

58. thats fantastic! thankyou....

[wicket]

60. Thank-you :)

If I don't hear anything from them soon, I'll be sending a second letter to each of them :)

[Q]

61. But...Democrats have already AGREED not to release the 'minority report'..

...until after the election. It's a done deal. While it NEVER HURTS to contact your representatives to express your opinion...don't expect to see the details of this 'true' report until November. And THEN you may not see all of it...expect the Bush* WH to 'classify' incriminating information and SPIN the rest.

[calimary]

62. Last I looked, they were PLEADING to hear from constituents.

That's the ONLY thing that'll motivate them.

If Howard Dean had mouthed off, in the beginning, and nobody came, nobody sent money, nobody started crowding those meetups, and nobody noticed it was something that sort of HAD to be covered because crowd size and bulging campaign coffers are just relentlessly difficult to ignore, we wouldn't even have gotten THIS far. On the other hand, we probably would have seen the Marriage DISCRIMINATION Amendment fly through the air with the greatest of ease, and by now, engraved in stone into the U.S. Constitution. We would have seen nobody testifying before the 9/11 Commission (certainly not contradicta rice), or, for that matter, ANY 9/11 Commission AT ALL. We would not pay any attention to The Jersey Girls, Michael Moore, Al Franken, or anybody else speaking out. They would all be safely packed away, on ice, in Gitmo by now.

As would we.

CALL.

WRITE.

FAX.

EMAIL.

COMPLAIN.

MAKE YOURSELF HEARD.

JUST DO IT.

[wicket]

63. I agree

We have to do something, there have been so many times that they have been firm in not doing something (like letting Condi testify) but public outcry makes them change their ways. The Dems want those who think this report should be released before the election to contact their elected officials and the Senate Intelligence Report. The only reason why the Dems went along with waiting to release it after the election is that they are the minority on the committee and had no other choice. I think we can force their hand on this one if we keep up the pressure.

[redqueen]

64. Kick

:kick:

[wicket]

65. And another!

:kick:

[wicket]

66. kick!

:kick: