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Rep Anna Eshoo

Eshoo Criticizes Composition of President's Intelligence Commission

February 6, 2004

February 6, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-Palo Alto and a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement on the President's commission to investigate failures of the intelligence community.

"In deciding to go to war in Iraq, our nation made the most profound decision a nation can make.

"The American people deserve a strong, independent commission which has a free hand to investigate exactly how our intelligence was collected, how it was analyzed, what was given to the Administration and how the Administration used it. But for the commission to be credible to the American people and the global community, the President should not be hand-picking its members and he should not be setting boundaries on how it does its work.

"If this stands, it will be a commission of the President, by the President and for the President."

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Timeline of Administration Quotes on Iraq's WMD

  • August 26, 2002: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." -- Vice President Dick Cheney.
  • September 18, 2002: "We do know that the Iraqi regime currently has chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction." -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
  • October 7, 2002: "If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today -- and we do -- does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?" -- President George W. Bush.
  • February 3, 2003: "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent." -- Secretary Of State Colin Powell.
  • March 16, 2003: "We believe Saddam has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." -- Vice President Cheney.
  • March 30, 2003: "We know where the WMD are." -- Secretary Rumsfeld.
  • May 4, 2003: "I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it now." -- Secretary Powell.
  • May 29, 2003: "We found the weapons of mass destruction." -- President Bush.
  • January 22, 2004: "I think the jury is still out [on the search for WMD]..." -- Vice President Dick Cheney.
  • January 25, 2004: "The weapons do not exist." -- David Kay, following resignation as head of the Iraq Study Group.

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