Transcript for February 12

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me turn to an article written by Paul Pillar, a CIA analyst for 28 years, who’s now written a piece on foreign affairs. Four people at the table, all of whom voted in favor of the war in Iraq, and this is what he said:  “The most serious problem with U.S. intelligence today is that its relationship with the policymaking process is broken and badly needs repair. In wake of then Iraq war, it’s become clear that official intelligence analysis was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community’s own work was politicized. As a national intelligence officer responsible for the Middle East from 2000 to 2005, I witnessed all of these disturbing development. If the entire body of official intelligence analysis on Iraq had a policy implication, it was to avoid war or, if war was going to be launched, to prepare for a messy aftermath. What is most remarkable about prewar U.S. intelligence on Iraq is not that it got things wrong and thereby misled policymakers, it is that it played so small a role in one of the most important U.S. policy decisions in recent decades.”

And, Senator Daschle, he says that he was not contacted by the administration for an assessment of post-war Iraq for a year after the war began. Based on everything you have learned over the last several years, do you regret authorizing the president—giving the president authority to go into Iraq?

SEN. DASCHLE:  Well, Tim, you can’t turn back the clock, and I’m—I’m not going to re-visit that vote. I will say I regret very much the way this was all handled. The tremendous—the shocking revelations now that Mr. Pillar has provided gives us yet another reason why we ought to be investigating the use of intelligence. You know, we were promised over two years ago that we would have an investigation on whether or not the intelligence was abused. Now you’ve got one of the most prominent CIA analysts in the country who has said, “Yes, it was abused, and Congress and others made very serious decisions based on faulty information.” We ought to have a far more aggressive oversight than what we’ve seen today.

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