Hotline: Murray Waas article was the trigger for Reid's actions

[jim3775]

From Hotline on call.

several Democratic aides tell us that Sen. Reid and Sen. Jay Rockefeller decided on today's tactic after reading Murray Waas's account on NationalJournal.com of how senior members of Vice President Cheney's staff, including Scooter Libby, may have intentionally withheld crucial documents from the Senate staff.

You can read his National Journal article here.
EDIT: Murray is posting about this on his blog.

Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel

By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005

Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, overruling advice from some White House political staffers and lawyers, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.

Among the White House materials withheld from the committee were Libby-authored passages in drafts of a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered to the United Nations in February 2003 to argue the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq, according to congressional and administration sources. The withheld documents also included intelligence data that Cheney's office -- and Libby in particular -- pushed to be included in Powell's speech, the sources said.

The new information that Cheney and Libby blocked information to the Senate Intelligence Committee further underscores the central role played by the vice president's office in trying to blunt criticism that the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence data to make the case to go to war.

(snip)

[dogday]

1. Investigation concluded they believed there

would not of been enough votes for war had all the information been given to the the Senate. The plot thickens. We shall see how high the water will rise...

[aquart]

7. And the Senate didn't KNOW they were being stiffed?

Come on.

We let it go. We were scared of being called weak on terrorism. We let them cow us.

[blm]

9. Only ten senators signed the letter of inquiry reDSM last summer.

I guess they all would sign it today.

[mzmolly]

14. Who's WE are you in the Senate?

;)

BUSH would not have dared present a case to the Senate with accurate information. The Senate did not know they were being had. Bush lied and he HAD to in order to push his rotten agenda.

[sandnsea]

18. WE???

I don't think there's any "we" in your affiliation with Democrats. Does your hatred for Democrats run so deep that after everything YOU know about what this Administration has done, you'd still let Republicans get away with it in order to continue your war against Democrats? When are you going to put the pile of hot heaping coals on Bush's head??

[Supersedeas]

expose the frauds expose the frauds expose the frauds

[PunkPop]

2. Cool.

Good for Murray. Good for Harry. Good for us!

[MO_Dem]

3. Thanks!

When I caught a glimpse of Harry Reid making his speech in the Senate, he had a piece of paper, and I wondered if it might be a copy of that faked Niger claim. With your info, I bet it was! Go Harrryyyyy!

:bounce:

[Proud2BAmurkin]

4. hot damn nt

nt

[Proud2BAmurkin]

5. hot damn nt

nt

[Proud2BAmurkin]

6. hot damn nt

nt

[Tennessee Gal]

8. I thought so!

Go Dems!

:kick:

[lildreamer316]

10. Kick

[Hobarticus]

11. Like a rotten onion...peel the damn thing open, and let the stench waft

So strong and so rancid that it cannot be denied!!!

[rodeodance]

12. and Pat Roberts was in cahots with Cheney in blocking this information.

[Ksec]

15. yep

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/HowSenate_Intelligence_chairman_fixed_intelligence_and_diverted_blame_fromWhite_House__0811.html

[Ksec]

13. Theres another felony.

Add this to the list of many.

This may actually be considered war crimes since it did get the war started.

[KoKo]

16. God LuvYa Murray! Remember when you and Gene Lyons and Joe Conason

were working back in the late '90's to expose the HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT ...brought to you by Mellon-Scaife, Ken Starr and the Christian Right + the PNAC!!!!!

If you lit a fire under Dems BUTTS then you deserve all we can give you in support. !!!

They Dems didn't listen to Robert Byrd, Russ Feingold or Ted Kennedy...they Fucked up and gave the Chimp their support...but it's good to see them back in action. As long as they remember and credit those of us who knew it all from the beginning. They were fooled BUT SO MANY DEMOCRATS WERE NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

[Poiuyt]

17. Norah O'Donnell should read that article

She read, very forcefully I might add, the conclusions of the Senate Intelligence Report

[Disturbed]

21. Around 100 in Congress voted NO on IWR.

I had the list but lost it. Anyone have that list?

I remember that T. Kennedy, Feingold, Boxer, Pelosi, Levin, Byrd voted NO. Around 60 Reps voted NO. Let us not post that all voted YES on that piece of fraud.

[Catrina]

22. 23 Senators voted against the war resolution

21 Democrats, 1 Independent and 1 Republican.

I believe approximately 123 Congressional members voted against it also. I remember crying that night and swearing I would not support any democrat who voted for it. It was so obvious to millions of people that Bush pushed that vote before the 2002 election. Only one member, whose name I forget now, who was up for re-election, voted against the war resolution. As I recall, he was re-elected.

That stunt worked. But 9/11 was being shamelessly used for everything back then. The atmosphere was created by the Bush administration that if you didn't do everything Bush wanted, you were pro-terror. Still, those who put aside their fears, can now feel vindicated.

Sen. Rockefeller voted for the resolution, but has since said that had he known then what he knows now, he would not have. He regrets that vote, he says.

[katty]

19. didn't Reid, etal bitch about this before?they had to know they

were being stonwalled (as usual)by these thugs...)but now they have a stronger platform from which to rant and demand.

[H2O Man]

20. A serious error

on the VP's part.

[Window]

23. Sweeeeeet!

Kicked and recommended.





Peace