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Senator wants White House under probe

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington OCT. 27. A key member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, John Rockefeller of West Virginia, is thinking about widening the scope of the inquiry into the pre-war intelligence flaws to include other government agencies such as the White House.

The Central Intelligence Agency has brushed aside the charge that there had been exaggeration of intelligence in the run-up to the war against Iraq and has asked for time so that a "comprehensive" explanation on how conclusions were reached could be given.

Mr. Rockefeller's idea has been rebuffed by the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, who has denied a media report that the Committee has come to a conclusion on the review of intelligence. Unnamed staff members have said that the panel is still in the early stages of drafting the report.

A spokesman for the CIA expressed surprise that the Committee has reached a conclusion, for it was yet to hear from the nodal intelligence agency in a comprehensive manner. And for his part, Mr. Roberts denied that his Committee finalised its report, which will be "blistering" in its criticism of the Director of the CIA, George Tenet. Mr. Tenet has apparently asked to speak to the Senate Committee before the finalisation of the report.

The Committee has gone through volumes of classified information and has interviewed scores of persons for its review. Once this is complete, the full Committee will go over the findings and hold open hearings on the matter.

In the aftermath of the start of the war against Iraq, senior lawmakers have been sharply critical of the manner in which intelligence material and conclusions have been reached to make key decisions. Some members of Congress have argued that the intelligence findings were simply faulty; others have tried to make a compelling case that the Bush administration, in a bid to justify its `case' against Saddam Hussein, doctored intelligence estimates especially on weapons of mass destruction.

"The question becomes whether it was the actual intelligence or how the judgements were made and how the intelligence was used for public policy purposes. So, it really is a continuum that has to be looked at as a whole", remarked another Committee member, Dianne Feinstein of California.

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