On Friday, President Bush claimed that members of Congress who voted for the 2002 Iraq war resolution “had access to the same intelligence” as his administration. ThinkProgress has published information debunking that claim. Our position was backed up this morning by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS).

Appearing on Fox New Sunday, Chris Wallace asked, “What about this question, Sen. Roberts, about whether or not — the fact is you didn’t get the same intelligence. Is that a legitimate concern?”

Roberts acknowledged: “It may be a concern to some extent.”

Of course, Roberts immediately began to offer caveats. He argued, for instance, that “we had the same information on the aluminum tubes at the time we went to war as the time that we took another look and said, whoa, wait a minute, this isn’t adding up.” In fact, it’s not true that Congress had the same information as the White House on aluminum tubes. As the New York Times explained, of the 15 assessments of the tubes sent to Congress, “not one of them” informed readers that experts within the Energy Department believed the tubes could not be used to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program.

But this critical point should not be obscured: President Bush’s statement on Friday was absolute. Either Congress did or did not have the “same intelligence” as the White House prior to the war. This morning, not even Sen. Pat Roberts — who has led efforts to delay and downplay the need for investigating prewar intelligence — would back him up.

Crooks & Liars has video, or read the full transcript: Read more

In his speech today, President Bush claimed that members of Congress who voted for the 2002 Iraq war resolution “had access to the same intelligence” as his administration. This is patently false.

Nevermind that much of the intelligence offered to the public and to Congress was inaccurate and misleading, or that according to the Downing Street memo and other documents, such intelligence was likely intentionally “fixed.” It is simply not true to state that Congress received the “same intelligence” as the White House:

FACT — Dissent From White House Claims on Iraq Nuclear Program Consistently Withheld from Congress:

[S]everal Congressional and intelligence officials with access to the 15 assessments [of intel suggesting aluminum tubes showed Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program] said not one of them informed senior policy makers of the Energy Department’s dissent. They described a series of reports, some with ominous titles, that failed to convey either the existence or the substance of the intensifying debate.” [NYT, 10/3/04]

FACT — Sen. Kerrey: Bush “Has Much More Access” to Intel Than Congress:

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), ex-Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman: “The president has much more access to intelligence than members of Congress does. Ask any member of Congress. Ask a Republican member of Congress, do you get the same access to intelligence that the president does? Look at these aluminum tube stories that came out the president delivered to the Congress — ‘We believe these would be used for centrifuges.’ — didn’t deliver to Congress the full range of objections from the Department of Energy experts, nuclear weapons experts, that said it’s unlikely they were for centrifuges, more likely that they were for rockets, which was a pre-existing use. The president has much more access to intelligence than any member of Congress.” [10/7/04]

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Recently, Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss visited Congress to argue that the CIA needs an exemption to legislation banning torture to have “maximum flexibility in dealing with the global war on terrorism.”

Several right-wing talking heads have argued in support of the Cheney proposal:

John Gibson: However, I don’t think Vice President Cheney is out of line asking for an exemption for the CIA from a law that will make torture by the U.S. government agents illegal. [Fox News, 11/7/05]

Bill O’Reilly: Now I agree that the military shouldn’t torture under any circumstances no branch of the military, but I would make the CIA exception because of weapons of mass destruction scenarios. [Fox News, 11/2/05]

CIA experts disagree. In an op-ed today, former CIA general counsel Jeffrey Smith argued forcefully against the exemption:

Americans do not join the CIA to commit torture. Yet that could be the result if a proposal advanced by Vice President Cheney becomes law. “¦ McCain wisely rejected that proposal. So should the [Defense bill] conferees. [Washington Post, 11/9/05]

With both the Senate and intelligence officials coming out against torture, it’s no wonder the White House is dodging questions about its efforts to carve out exemptions.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet this week with Ahmed Chalabi, who is suspected of leaking national security secrets to Iran. At yesterday’s State Department press briefing, spokesman Adam Ereli tried to downplay the meeting:

U.S. Government officials regularly meet with Dr. Chalabi. They meet with him when they go to Iraq and they meet with him in — outside of Iraq in international fora and they’re going to meet with him when he comes here — Secretary Rice and others.

It’s the Dr. Seuss school of diplomacy:

I would meet him in a boat!
I would meet him with a goat!
I would meet him in the rain!
And in the dark. And in Bahrain.
And in a car. And in a tree.
He is so good, so good, you see!

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) wrote a letter to intelligence committee chairmen about the recent leak of information to the Washington Post about secret CIA detention centers in Europe.

In the letter, Frist and Hastert claimed the leaks “could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences” for the security of the United States, and warned of a “dangerous trend” of leaking “that, if not addressed swiftly and firmly, likely will worsen.”

But today, in an off-camera meeting with reporters, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) revealed that the leak likely came from a Senator or Senate staffer who attended a GOP-only meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney last week, where the detention centers were discussed.

CNN’s Ed Henry has the full report:

Watch in Quicktime

Sen. Dick Durbin on the Senate floor this afternoon:

I don’t understand this. While the Department of Justice is actively investigating this man for wrongdoing that could have endangered American troops and American lives, the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury are hosting him like some sort of dignitary. So don’t be surprised if you watch the Chalabi motorcade speed up when they pass the Department of Justice. I guess they’re concerned whether an FBI agent will come out and pursue this so-called active investigation.

It is very difficult to track how this man, who gave us such misleading information before the invasion of Iraq, now under active investigation for endangering American troops is now under active investigation for endangering American troops is now the toast of the town at the Department of Treasury and the Department of State

More information on Mr. Chalabi here.

UPDATE: More from Rep. George Miller.

UPDATE 2: Arianna has the full text of Durbin’s remarks.

The Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution reports:

Ahmed Chalabi, deputy prime minister of Iraq and once a U.S. favorite to replace Saddam Hussein, has not lost his luster with Vice-President Dick Cheney. Mr. Chalabi will hold a private meeting with Vice-President Cheney during his visit to Washington D.C. this week, the first such trip in more than two years.

Though not on his official schedule, Mr. Chalabi is counting on meeting his biggest backer in the Bush administration, Vice-President Dick Cheney…

Mr. Chalabi will arrive in Washington D.C. late Tuesday, November 8th, on a British Airways Flight from London. He will stay at the Ritz-Carleton Hotel in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C., where he has booked no less than eight hotel suites for himself and staff.

UPDATE: Knight-Ridder has a similar report:

Chalabi’s allies in the Pentagon and the vice president’s office never gave up on him, though, and now the pendulum appears to be swinging back in his direction. He’s expected to meet with Treasury Secretary John Snow and on Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who’s not as cool to Chalabi as was her predecessor, Colin Powell. Administration officials yesterday said Chalabi also might meet Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

Get the full story on Chalabi tomorow morning on ThinkProgress.

(HT: War and Piece)

During Wednesday’s gaggle, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan explained why there is no need to investigate the manipulation of intelligence prior to the Iraq war:

[T]hey wanted to look at how the intelligence was used. The intelligence “” how the intelligence was used was all part of the public record.

Actually, that’s not true. Editor and Publisher previews an article that will appear in tomorrow’s New York Times based on a newly declassified memo:

It shows that an al-Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to this Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002″¦

“The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi’s credibility,” Jehl writes. “Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi’s information as ‘credible’ evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.”

Are there other memos floating around that will reveal more about how intelligence was used and abused to justify the Iraq war? That’s why we need a real investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

(HT: Atrios)

UPDATE: The full NYT article is now available.

2005 Summit of the Americas in Argentina:

Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of this seaside resort Friday chanting “Get out Bush” as the U.S. president sought to promote free trade at a divided Summit of the Americas. Protests turned violent with about 1,000 people shattering shopfronts with clubs and pelting riot police with stones. … Demonstrators took to the streets hours before the summit started, shouting insults about Bush and chanting “Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!” [AP, 11/4/05]

1998 Summit of the Americas in Chile:

At one point, Clinton walked in hazy sunshine down Gran Avenida, a busy commercial street lined with thousands of people, including schoolchildren in blue and white uniforms, many of them chanting “Clinton, Clinton.” A few bystanders chanted “Kennedy,” apparently in reference to the popular former U.S. president. [CNN, 4/16/98]

To be fair, there were also protesters when Clinton arrived in Chile, but we have yet to witness any indication that there is any popular support for President Bush in Argentina. Wonder why that might be.

Today’s Washington Post/ABC poll is full of bad signs for the Bush presidency. Among the most notable: for the first time since the September 11 attacks, most Americans disapprove of Bush’s efforts in the war on terrorism:

McClellan at during today’s gaggle on the Senate Intelligence Committees investigation of pre-war intelligence:

Q. Why did they finally agree to a bipartisan group, then, to look into this whole business?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that’s not –

Q. Roberts has been sitting on the intelligence policy –

MR. McCLELLAN: Helen — Helen, they’ve already — they’ve had phase one and phase two…

That’s not true. Here is the Boston Globe on July 27:

Roberts… said in February that the committee’s investigation of the administration’s use of intelligence is “on the back burner,” and said in April that other issues have more urgent claims on the committee’s attention.

Phase two has not been completed and there is no report. That’s why, after the Senate was closed yesterday, Sen. Frist agreed to a bipartisan panel to assess the progress of the investigation.

We’ve posted the entire gaggle. You’ll want to check it out — it’s a doozy.

Earler this year, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the United States was adhering to both U.S. law and treaty obligations outlawing torture:

And as we carry out the war on terrorism, and seek to prevent attacks from happening, we must adhere to those laws, and we must adhere to those treaty obligations and we must adhere to — we must adhere to our values. [White House, 3/17/05]

But the Washington Post reports today that the U.S. is keeping prisoners in a system of secret, “black-site” prisons around the world, where they can be treated to punishment which the U.N. Convention on torture and U.S. military law does not allow:

Host countries have signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as has the United States. Yet CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are permitted to use the CIA’s approved “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,” some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law. They include tactics such as “waterboarding,” in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning. [Washington Post, 11/2/05]

The prisons were approved “by a small circle of White House and Justice Department lawyers and officials, according to several former and current U.S. government and intelligence officials.” It helps explain why the White House wants to exempt the CIA from legislation banning the inhumane treatment of detainees.

UPDATE: Those responsible for justifying these policies are getting promotions. David S. Addington, Vice President Cheney’s choice to replace Scooter Libby as his Chief of Staff, was a “principal author of the White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects.” The memo said, “Congress may no more regulate the president’s ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements on the battlefield.”

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.

Watch in Quicktime

Transcript below: Read more

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.”