Either We Do Our Job Or We Don't

Floor Speech

EITHER WE DO OUR JOB OR WE DON'T -- (House of Representatives - May 01, 2007)

Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Last week, the Government Reform and Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Secretary Rice and it was faced, the committee, with a simple question. We could do our job or not.

There is no question, no question that the intelligence used by the administration to justify the war in Iraq was dead wrong. Secretary Rice was the administration's principal spokesperson, and under her leadership the administration was certain but wrong about the Niger claim; certain but wrong about the aluminum tubes, certain but wrong about the al Qaeda connection, about the mobile labs, about unmanned aerial vehicles. And there are now three questions that Congress must answer. How did the White House and Secretary Rice have such confidence they were so right when, in fact, they were so wrong? How can we protect the American people and U.S. military from such misinformation in the future? And was the administration's active dissemination of bad intelligence premeditated and deliberate, done with the intention to deceive the American people, or was it reckless and cavalier, done to justify a decision to go to war that had already been made?

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