The Hindu : Iraq: U.S. panel to get `WMD details'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 04, 2003

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Iraq: U.S. panel to get `WMD details'

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON NOV. 3. According to the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, the White House has agreed to turnover material on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that was used to justify the invasion. But the top Democrat on the panel, Senator Jay Rockefeller, is unwilling to read much into this saying he would like to see what kind of documents are offered.

The Senate panel looking into the administration's rationale — chiefly on weapons of mass destruction — justifying the March invasion is miffed at the fashion in which the White House has gone about the whole business; and has demanded in letters to senior officials that documents and agreements reached on personal interviews be turned over.

"In a spirit of cooperation that the White House has agreed to supply us with the documents and the interviews we want," the Republican Senator Roberts, said on Sunday. His Democratic colleague was less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. "I want to see the documentation before I'm satisfied. I want to know that we really have it in hand", Mr. Rockefeller said. In being optimistic of this new found willingness of the White House, Mr. Roberts was not sure however as to when the materials would be turned over. "Every document we want will be made available; whether or not it's available on Monday or Tuesday is another thing." From the very beginning, the White House has been saying that while cooperation would be forthcoming, not everything that the Senate panel has been asking will be immediately given. And when push comes to shove, the White House is willing to invoke Executive Privilege to block access to documents and materials.

The Senate panel is keen on having access to the CIA officials who daily brief the President, George W Bush, and officials. Whether the White House will make these individuals available to law-makers remains to be seen.

There is yet another facet to the goings on in Capitol Hill. The Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Panel wish to confine this probe to the intelligence agencies and their assessments of the goings on in Iraq, especially proscribed weapons and systems. The Democrats wish to go a step further: how the White House used the intelligence findings and estimates. There is the strong view that this White House had taken the intelligence estimates and findings and doctored them to suit a particular policy. And one question that has repeatedly come up is if the `threat' from Saddam Hussein was `imminent' to warrant the outright invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Many on the outside believe that this was hardly the case.

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