rulemylife
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quote:
ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY
quote:
ORIGINAL: rulemylife
quote:
ORIGINAL: FirmhandKY
Of course, none of the "Bush Lied" crowd would dare input any purely political motives on the SENATE Intelligence committee, or the wonderfully non-partisan "Jay" Rockefeller ... that stuff just doesn't happen in their world ...
Democrats Mull Politicizing Iraq War Intelligence
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Fox News
WASHINGTON — Fox News has obtained a document believed to have been written by the Democratic staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee that outlines a strategy for exposing what it calls "the administration's dubious motives" in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.
The memo, provided late Tuesday by a source on the Committee ... discusses the timing of a possible investigation into pre-war Iraq intelligence in such a way that it could bring maximum embarrassment to President Bush in his re-election campaign.
Among other things, the memo recommends that Democrats "prepare to launch an investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the [Senate] majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation of the administration's use of intelligence at any time — but we can only do so once ... the best time would probably be next year."
The last paragraph of the memo reads, "Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq."
Committee Chairman Pat Roberts R-Kan., appeared clearly shocked by the memo, which Sen. Jay Rockefeller D-W. Va., ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, acknowledged was written in draft form and not meant for distribution.
Roberts said Tuesday a leaked strategy memo from Rockefeller's staff "exposes politics in its most raw form."
The memo discusses strategy for "revealing the misleading, if not flagrantly dishonest, methods and motives of senior administration officials who made the case for unilateral pre-emptive war." It discussed how Democrats could press for an independent investigation that has already been rejected by the Republican-led Congress or launch their own investigation.
In a statement, Roberts said that the memo "appears to be a road map for how the Democrats intend to politicize what should be a bipartisan, objective review of prewar intelligence."
Rockefeller did not say who wrote the memo.
So ... to recap ...
1. Rockefeller has planned all along to attempt to use his committee to politically embarrass the Republicans, and time it for the best political impact for the Democrats.
2. The Democrats had a conclusion first, and then proceeded to massage the facts to match those conclusion (shades of what they accuse Bush of doing!)
It all must be true considering it came from a clearly non-partisan source such as Fox News.
rulemylife,
I'm sorry, but you are the one now guilty of purely partisan thinking.
You attempt to discredit facts simply because of the source.
At times, that is a valid observation, if the facts are in doubt.
However, to simply dismiss something out of hand - only because of the source - is a sign of ideological thinking. I rarely quote Fox news about anything, simply because of the heartburn many on the "left" have about it.
But in this case, FOX new broke the story, and so I went to the original source rather than second-hand sources (FYI, primary sources are usually best if they are available).
What facts, specifically, do you wish to dispute about the Fox report?
Was such a memo found?
Was such a memo written by Democrats or Democratic staffers?
Were the quotes by Pat Roberts or Jay Rockefeller accurate?
If you aren't disputing any of those things (which are the facts on which I based my beliefs that partisanship in the reporting about the Iraqi war are based), then what does the source in this case matter?
Here. Try this one:
THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: INTELLIGENCE REVIEW;
Republican and Democratic Panel Leaders Take Feud to the Senate Floor
By DOUGLAS JEHL
New York Times
Published: November 6, 2003
Five months after the Senate Intelligence Committee began its review of prewar intelligence on Iraq, a contentious dispute broke out on the Senate floor on Wednesday as the panel's top Republican and Democrat traded accusations of bad faith.
The simmering debate about how far the inquiry should go burst into light with the circulation by Republicans late Tuesday of a draft memorandum written by a member of the committee's Democratic staff.
The memo said that Democrats seeking to call attention to the supposed misuse of intelligence by senior Bush administration officials should prepare to disavow the main thrust of the inquiry, which under the committee's Republican majority has primarily remained focused on the conduct of intelligence agencies.
Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, the panel's Republican chairman, accused Democrats of trying ''to discredit the committee's work and undermine its conclusions, no matter what those conclusions may be.'' But Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the panel's Democratic vice-chairman, accused Senator Roberts of blocking his efforts to mount a complete review of how the public was given what now appears to have been an inaccurate picture of Iraq's alleged illicit weapons stockpiles and ties to terrorism.
There's more from the New York Times, if you want to read it.
As well, a search of the Thomas website would likely reveal the actual words spoken in debate about the issue on the Senate Floor (another primary source) if you really had a problem with whether or not the events discussed in the Fox report were accurate.
But simply trying to put the report I linked to in disrepute by simply saying "Fox News!" is a fallcious logical argument, meant to cloud the issue, not illuminate.
Firm
Well, it was meant as a lighthearted response, but you do have a point.
Since we want to debate this though, I have to question why you are highlighting a document from before the last election, a memo from 2003, nearly 5 years ago, as a valid rebuttal to the document that is the topic of this thread?
Did you not realize that politicians engage in ............ummmm............what's the word? Oh yeah...........politics?
You need only read Senator Roberts comments from your own post to remind yourself of that. He was "clearly shocked by the memo". Give me a break! If that's not political posturing I don't know what is.
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