Senator Roberts used his report, "The Senate Report on Prewar Intelligence", to discredit Wilson and Plame.
Senator Roberts and his Senate Intelligence Committee, investigated the WDM intelligence for over a year and in the end Robert's announced that "there were only were two issues on which the Republicans and Democrats could not agree".
Plame and Wilson
Here is what Senator Roberts had to say about the 12 month effort that produced the report, "Senate Report on Prewar Intelligence" dated July 7, 2004.
Senator Roberts begins by stating that this Report is unprecedented in the history of the Senate.
The scope of the Committee's 12 month inquiry into the US Intelligence Community's prewar assessments regarding Iraq is without precedent in the history of the Committee. (Pg 441)
Senator Roberts tells us how he wanted this effort to be "untainted by politics".
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Senator Roberts tells us how he wanted this effort to be "untainted by politics".
It was my hope from the outset of this inquiry that the Committee could handle this important matter in a responsible manner untainted by politics. Despite early setbacks and differences of opinion, I believe we achieved that goal (Pg 442).
Senator Roberts explains how he bent over backward to accommodate the Democrats
In response to Minority concerns and suggestions, we made many adjustments along the way. We conducted additional interviews, and most important, we expanded the scope of the review and made more than 200 changes to this report and the request of Democratic members. (Pg 442)
However, after the all the interviews and reviewing thousands of documents, there were only 2 things the Senate Committe could not agree upon.
Yep Wilson and Plame.
Despite our hard and successful work to deliver a unanimous report, however there were two issues on which the Republicans and Democrats could not agree: 1) whether the Committee should conclude that former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's public statements were not based on knowledge he actually possesses, and 2) whether the Committee should conclude that it was the former ambassador's wife who recommended him for the trip to Niger. (PG 442)
Here's the version Senator Roberts wanted to be sure he pushed as he released the 521 page "Senate Report on Prewar Intelligence". Here is portion of the actual text in the Senate Report.
During Mr. Wilson's media Blitz, he appeared on more than thirty television shows including entertainment venues. Time and again, Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen ........Page 444
After devoting 4 pages to Wilson and Plame in his remarks Roberts concludes with this.
The former Ambassador, either by design or through ignorance, gave the American people and for that matter, the world a version of events that was inaccurate, unsubstantiated, and misleading. pg 445
When the Senate Report was released last summer, the remarks by Senator Roberts and the content he chose to include in the report were widely used to discredit Wilson and Plame.
Here is a quote from an article based on the newly released Senate Report.
July 10, 2004 Washington Post by Susan Schmidt
Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.
Here are the 2 questions I have for our Senators.
If Plame's role was such a major issue for the Senate Committee, I have to assume they looked very carefully at the documents relating to Plame's role in Wilson's trip. Including the State Department memo that details the meeting that took place in Febuary 2002.
First, Why didn't the Senate Report mention the date on the State Department memo? (June 10, 2003 or July 7, 2003)
Second, Why didn't the Senate Report explain that the person who made this claim about Plame,
"apparently convened by [ the former Ambassador's wife ] wife who had the idea to dispatch [ him ]",
was not an attendee of the meeting. How could the author of meeting notes (who clearly wasn't at the meeting) know "she dispatched him"
