Wichita Eagle
"LEAKED-MEMO" INTEL 'SLAPPED IN THE FACE'
Wed Nov 5 12:24:35 2003
64.140.158.48

Posted on Wed, Nov. 05, 2003 story:PUB_DESC
'Slapped in the face,' Kansas senator turns target
BY ALAN BJERGA
The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/7189084.htm

WASHINGTON - Democrats are plotting against him, Republicans won't give him information and conservative radio listeners are calling him a dupe -- of the Democrats.

"I've had better days," said Sen. Pat Roberts on Tuesday, when his investigation of pre-war intelligence on Iraq spun into a multi-level theater of frustration.

Since it began this summer, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence inquiry has been a focal point of Capitol Hill intrigue, because of its significant implications for the president as he prepares his re-election campaign. Charges of using the investigation for partisan ends have flown from both parties.

But Roberts said a memo prepared by Democratic staff on the committee and leaked Tuesday to conservative radio commentator Sean Hannity left him feeling "slapped in the face."

The memo outlined ways committee Democrats could keep political heat on the administration well into next year, detailing when would be the best time to launch an independent investigation beyond the committee, the advantages of adding 'additional views' to committee reports, and how to expand the investigation.

Roberts said such strategies had no place in the committee's investigation, undermining its credibility.

"I'm not so naive as to think that politics don't play a role on committees," he said. "But the Intelligence Committee, because it impacts our national security and the war on terrorism, it's too important a topic to be partisan."

The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, confirmed the memo's authenticity, but distanced his party from it, saying it was never approved by the committee.

It was "likely taken from a waste basket or through unauthorized computer access," he said.

Roberts said he and other Republicans plan to spend a half-hour on the Senate floor today to protest the memo, which Roberts called a Democratic "attack plan."

After that, he said, "we'll try to rebuild some bridges. It will be difficult."

But the memo wasn't Roberts' only problem Tuesday. Conservatives from the White House to the airwaves found Roberts an easy target.

Faced with less cooperation than he expected, Roberts backtracked from statements he made Sunday that the Bush administration would give his panel the documents and interviews it requested for the investigation.

The report, and public hearings, will most likely wait until next year, Roberts said, though he added that he's still confident the administration will comply with his requests.

"There's been a willingness" to turn over materials, he said.

Rockefeller wasn't as confident.

"It's very hard for me to come to believe that the White House is going to cooperate on things which potentially could put them in a different light," he said.

And after Hannity reported the committee Democrats' memo, Roberts' offices in Topeka, Wichita and Washington lit up with callers disgusted that the senator was cooperating with Democrats at all.

The memo called Roberts' willingness to grant their requests "helpful," which many of Hannity's listeners didn't think was appropriate behavior for a Republican.

Roberts said he was trying to be bipartisan.

"I have tried very hard to bend over backwards to accommodate any requests by the minority in terms of hearing and topics," he said.

But maybe that's not been taken in good faith, he said.

"The memo said that at some point the Democrats could 'pull the trigger,' " he said. "When I read that, I felt like they're going to pull the trigger on me."
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Searched news for leaked memo. Results 1 - 10 of about 349

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