Election Year politicking

Pat Roberts of Kansas:

“These additional views demonstrate to me that Phase II has become a political exercise. The views have little to do with the facts in the two reports which were released. The reports are little more than a vehicle to advance election year political charges. That is not the purpose for which the Intelligence Committees were created, and just as important, it distracts us from the work we should be doing.

“Unfortunately, my colleagues continue to use the Committee to try and rewrite history insisting that they were deliberately duped into supporting the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime. That is simply not true and I believe the American people are smart enough to recognize election year politicking when they see it.

“Rather than perpetuating an ongoing effort to rewrite history, the Committee should be focusing all of its resources on a host of troubling issues: monitoring Intelligence Community reforms, balancing acquisition requirements with budgetary constraints, correcting the flawed tradecraft which led to the Iraq intelligence failure, and assessing collection and analysis of intelligence on Iran, North Korea, and al-Qaida.