W. House Fires Back At Senate Dems
Administration Dismisses Questions On Bush's Use of Iraq Intel
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Play CBS Video Video Analysis Of Senate Fight "CBS Evening News" anchor Bob Schieffer offered analysis of the Senate Democrats move to call for a rare closed door session that infuriated Republicans.
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Video Pre-War Intelligence Battle Democrats resorted to some hardball politics to force a review of pre-Iraq war intelligence, reports Wyatt Andrews. Republicans were outraged.
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Video Fireworks In The Senate In a bold move that infuriated Republicans, Democratic Leader Harry Reid moved the Senate into closed session to discuss the investigations into pre-war assessments on Iraq. Wyatt Andrews reports.
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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., right, leaves the Senate floor accompanied by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., left, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., after his speech on the Senate floor, Nov. 1, 2005, invoking Rule 21. (AP)
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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks to reporters outside the Senate Chamber, Nov. 1, 2005, where Democrats forced a rare closed-door session. (Getty Images/Mark Wilson)
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Interactive The Leak People and events surrounding the leak of a CIA officer's name.
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Interactive The 109th Congress Meet the leaders and follow the action in the House and Senate.
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Roberts' committee produced a 511-page report in 2004 on flaws in an Iraq intelligence estimate assembled by the country's top analysts in October 2002, and he promised a second phase would look at issues that couldn't be finished in the first year of work.
The committee has worked on the second phase of the review, Roberts said, but it has not finished. He blamed Democrats for the delays and said his staff had informed Democratic counterparts on Monday that the committee hoped to complete the second phase next week.
"Now we have this ... stunt 24 hours after their staff was informed that we were moving to closure next week," a clearly angry Roberts told reporters. "If that's not politics, I'm not standing here."
For their part, Reid and Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, claimed that Republicans have repeatedly rebuffed Democratic pleas for a thorough investigation.
When Reid made his move at mid-afternoon, the public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed, the TV cameras were turned off and the doors were closed.
Under Senate rules, no vote is required when a member demands a secret session.
Some Democrats have accused the White House of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq.
Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last Friday for lying during an investigation that touched on the war — a probe of the leak of the identity of a CIA official married to a critic of the administration's Iraq policy.
"The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions," Reid said.
Libby resigned from his White House post after being indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury.
It was the first time in more than two decades the chamber has been forced into a closed session without bipartisan agreement. The last closed session was in 1999 to consider the impeachment of President Clinton.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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