Minority Leader Harry Reid today forced the Senate into a rare, secret closed door session, threatening to delay legislative action until the Intelligence Committee followed through on its planned investigation of prewar Iraq intelligence failures.

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Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), today on the Senate floor:

“Well, there’s been a lot of talk about Phase 2. What is Phase 2? Why has it been delayed, if in fact it has been delayed? … It isn’t like it’s been delayed. As a matter of fact, it’s been ongoing. As a matter of fact, we have been doing our work on Phase 2.”

Pat Roberts, 3/31/05:

“I don’t think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further.”

AP reports:

In a speech on the Senate floor, Democratic leader Harry Reid said the American people and U.S. troops deserved to know the details of how the United States became engaged in the war, particularly in light of the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.

Statements from Reid demanded the Senate go into closed session. With a second by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed, senators filed to their seats on the floor and the doors were closed.

For more on closed sessions, check out this CRS report.

UPDATE: Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) says the closed Senate session is “some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak.”

UPDATE 2: Statement of Sen. Jay Rockefeller on the closed session.

UPDATE 3: Statement of Sen. Harry Reid on the closed session.

UPDATE 4: Majority Leader Frist reacts: “They have no conviction. They have no principles. They have no ideas. But this is the ultimate. Since I’ve been majority leader…have ever I been slapped in the face with such an affront to the leadership of this grand institution.”

UPDATE 5: From Hotline: “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.”