...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, June 24, 2003
      ( 4:17 PM )
 
Senator Byrd Steps Up

Thanks to Maru for pointing us towards Senator Robert Byrd's comments today. His speech is awesome (as Maru says, pass it on) ...now will our leaders have the courage to listen?

Here's a taste:

But there is a great difference between the hand-
picked intelligence that was presented by the Administration
to Congress and the American people when compared
against what we have actually discovered in Iraq. This
Congress and the people who sent us here are entitled
to an explanation from the Administration.

[...]

Well, Mr. President, this is no game. For the first time
in our history, the United States has gone to war
because of intelligence reports claiming that a country
posed a threat to our nation. Congress should not be
content to use standard operating procedures to look
into this extraordinary matter. We should accept no
substitute for a full, bipartisan investigation by Congress
into the issue of our pre-war intelligence on the threat
from Iraq and its use.

[...]

The business of intelligence is secretive by necessity, but
our government is open by design. We must be straight
with the American people. Congress has the obligation to
investigate the use of intelligence information by the
Administration, in the open, so that the American people can
see that those who exercise power, especially the awesome
power of preemptive war, must be held accountable. We
must not go down the road of cover-up. That is the road to ruin.

Can you hear us now, Mr. President?

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