- A US Senate committee deadline to the Bush administration
to hand over files relating to intelligence on pre-war Iraq has passed
without being fully met.
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- Investigating the quality of intelligence that was used
to justify the war, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had given
the White House, Pentagon and the State Department till Friday noon to
hand over all relevant documents.
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- But reports suggest that only 11 out of the 15 documents
asked for by the committee have been handed over.
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- Deadline
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- "We expect to receive all documents and schedule
all interviews by 12 pm (1700 GMT) 31 October, 2003," the committee
had said earlier in open letters.
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- The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had also been sent
a letter to hand over all files relating to Iraq's pre-war intelligence.
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- The letters, signed by committee chairman Pat Roberts,
a Kansas Republican and John Rockfeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said
the committee was "conducting a thorough review of US intelligence
on the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destructionÖand ties
to terrorism."
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- The intelligence was used by the Bush administration
to make the case for invading Iraq, but the failure to find any weapons
of mass destruction has led to doubts about its accuracy.
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- Complaint
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- The letters also said that many of the requests for documents
and interviews with staff members had gone unmet.
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- "We expect to receive all documents and schedule
all interviews by 12 pm (1700 GMT) 31 October, 2003"
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- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
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- "It is hard to overstate the importance of the ongoing
efforts - to evaluate pre-war intelligence and determine what worked and
what did not," said the letters.
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- "You must expedite our access," the letters
urged.
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- Appearing on an American television channel, US Secretary
of State Colin Powell said all but one of the requested documents had been
submitted to the committee.
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- "The remaining one, we still have to get cleared,
but there is no problem. We intend to cooperate fully with the Senate in
this case. And so we think we have been very responsive and we are going
to give them anyone they wish to speak to," Powell said.
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- White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration
was cooperating with the Senate committee's request.
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- Agencies
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/92E5F52F-8B87-
- 40FC-9A63-3C8CE50F39BB.htm
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