Senate Committee Issues Reports on Pre-War Iraq Intel
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today finally released the final two reports of its investigation into pre-war intelligence on Iraq.
“Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced,” said Senator Jay Rockefeller in a news release.
“Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said. “In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”
A summary of the report’s conclusions, which would have been most useful about four years ago, is presented here, with links to the newly released reports.
Satellite imagery of RAF Lakenheath reveals new construction of a security perimeter around ten protective aircraft shelters in the designated nuclear area, the latest measure in a series of upgrades as the base prepares for the ability to store U.S. nuclear weapons.
It will take consistent leadership and action to navigate the complex dangers in the region and to avoid what many analysts considered to be an increasingly possible outcome, a nuclear conflict in East Asia.
Getting into a shutdown is the easy part, getting out is much harder. Both sides will be looking to pin responsibility on each other, and the court of public opinion will have a major role to play as to who has the most leverage for getting us out.
How the United States responds to China’s nuclear buildup will shape the global nuclear balance for the rest of the century.