Posted on 04/27/2007 7:54:02 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
The Senate's No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.
"The information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn't believe it," Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Wednesday when talking on the Senate floor...
"I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn't do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy...."
The White House responded by saying Congress had access to the same intelligence and voted overwhelmingly to go to war.
"We all understand today that there were intelligence failures, but there was no effort to mislead either members of Congress or the American people," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
Mr. Durbin yesterday said there was no "ethical" way to notify the public of specific misleading information being touted by the Bush administration because it would have required revealing top-secret information being provided to the intelligence committee...
Congress authorized the 2003 use of armed force against Iraq by votes of 296-133 in the House and 77-23 in the Senate. Five of nine Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted for the measure as did all eight Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office circulated an e-mail...(saying)Mr. Durbin's comments were inconsistent with the words of other Democrats on the committee, including Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Carl Levin of Michigan...
A congressional official familiar with the information about Iraq that was provided to the intelligence committee in 2002 said it did not differ from what the administration was saying publicly...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Durban is vies with “Treasonous” Harry Reid for the biggest liar in the Senate.
Why’d he vote for it then?
What a Dick!!
Dickless Dirtbin does not have any ethics just like his butt boy Leaky Leahy.
What a loser...
Durbin’s gonna wish he kept mouth shut this time.
I don’t think so. The Democrats appear to be emboldened in their treason and lies.
So....he is now released from his vow of “secrecy”? Since when?
“Why’d he vote for it then? !!!!!!!!!!!!”
I looked. Apparently he didn’t. The guy is a weasel regardless.
"Except, of course, when we decide to leak something to damage the President," Durbin added. /sarcasm
Mr. Durbin yesterday said there was no “ethical” way to notify the public of specific misleading information being touted by the Bush administration because it would have required revealing top-secret information being provided to the intelligence committee...
What a liar.....he could have revealed on the senate floor with impunity and absolutely NO risk of legal consequences.
If you read the entire article, you see that so far no one who was privy to the committee briefings supports his claims.
I wonder if he stood up in applause during the SOTU address where the “information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given to the American people” was supposedly being disseminated. And what does he do? Votes FOR the war.
If the information was wrong, wouldnt it have been ethical to report it? Ethics and Dick Durbin in the same sentence-it would make a cat laugh..
Was he lying then or is he lying now? Too bad the other members of the Intel committee didn’t lie then and freely spoke up on the record and on the Senate floor. In particular, Democrat leader Sen Rockefeller who was the only person on record to call Saddam an immediate threat in a Senate floor speech. So I assume Sen Rockefeller was lying, or just ‘playing along’.
Durbin wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him ...
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