The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is a committee in the United States Senate.
wikipedia:United_States_Senate_Select_Committee_on_Intelligence
It is supposed to keep an eye on the executive branch and its various Intelligence agencies, like CIA, DIA, NSA, etc.
As for the Habbush Letter.... the question is, as raised by 'a reader' of Andrew Sullivan, did this committee find out anything? How come they didn't figure out any of the stuff that Suskind figured out? If they interviewed some of the same people that Suskind interviews, how come those people didn't bring all this stuff up?
1990s[]
"Congress -- particularly the Senate intelligence committee, which sent two staff aides along with CIA agents on evaluation missions in the north -- has played a major role in pressing for covert action and in shaping a program that many at the agency saw as doomed to fail from the outset." http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/june27.htm jim hoagland, washington post, june 26, 1997
2004 Report on iraq pre-war intelligence[]
The committee had a bunch of meetings about the whole pre-war Iraq intelligence situation, and they made a report. It is called the Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq and was put out in July, 2004.
Wikipedia has a great site about the report. Wikipedia page
But what does it have to do with the Habbush letter? Theoretially, the Habbush letter is a forgery created in late 2003. The war started in March 2003, so would the committee have had anything to do with it?
members during relevant time frame[]
wikipedia:United_States_Senate_election,_2002
many others... help edit please?
weird report from april 2001[]
" The Committee is concerned that for a number of years, the funding allocated for intelligence activities has been inadequate. While some reallocation of national resources was inevitable after the end of the Cold War, the Committee believes the time has come to increase funding for intelligence activities to ensure timely and adequate warning of threats to our national security in a complex and challenging security environment. The Committee identified substantial shortfalls in modernization programs for some agencies that can only be addressed by additional resources, or a realignment of priorities for intelligence expenditures."
" In 1999 and 2000, the Committee held a number of closed hearings and briefings to review intelligence collection and analysis on Iraq, intelligence support to U.S. military forces in the area, and support to the efforts initiated under the Iraqi Liberation Act (ILA) of 1998. In addition, Committee members and staff received numerous classified briefings throughout the 106th Congress on intelligence regarding Iraq's missile, chemical, biological, and nuclear programs, and the status and intentions of Saddam Hussein's regime."
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2001_rpt/srep107-51.html
Lou Dobbs interview with senator Pat Roberts, 2003[]
On pg 379 of The Way of the World, Suskind quotes the TV show wikipedia:Lou Dobbs on the CNN channel, from dec 16 2003, right after the Con Coughlin story came out. Dobbs is asking one of the senators on the committe about the Habbush letter. The senator is Pat Roberts, and he says 'we have been aware of that story', and 'we are following that up'. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/16/ldt.00.html http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/16/ldt.00.html]
q: Did they follow it up ?
Habbush not mentioned in report[]
It is not clear, because if you download the report, and use Acrobat Reader to do a 'search' on the term 'Habbush', you get zero hits. Habush, same thing. IIS (iraqi intelligence service, which Habbush ran), gets a few hits, but none of them mention the head of the IIS.
See more at the article: Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq
Part II of the report , released in 2008[]
Apparently , it took them 4 years to finish the report... [1]
And it doesnt mention Habbush either... nor the IIS (or is my acrobat reader messed up? can i get confirmation from someone?)
why so long between phases[]
Larisa Alexandrovna wrote an article claiming the delay in 'phase ii' of the report was because of pentagon resistance, and because the pentagon inspector generals report on the office of special plans, took a long time to do. also says pat roberts was naughty.
objectivity of part 2 questioned[]
senator Kit Bond - "The minority was entirely cut out of the process and that the report was written solely by Democratic staffers – For example, Republican amendments, including those of the Vice Chairman, were not even given a vote;" http://intelligence.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=298783
are they gonna investigate suskinds claims[]
on the amy goodman/suskind interview, she said the SSCI was going to inestigate the claims in his book. as of aug 17 2008 i cant find any evidence of that anywhere.. but maybe im not looing hard enough? edit this if you know better please.
See Also[]
http://intelligence.senate.gov, their website