December 5, 2008
Senate panel leaders say CIA is stalling release of Iraq report
GOP lawmaker calls it 'not a flattering picture'
WASHINGTON - Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee are accusing the CIA of trying to delay the release of the panel's report that criticizes the agency for overestimating the prewar threat posed by Iraq.
"I'm not sure whether it's because they don't want to be embarrassed," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the committee's top Democrat.
"For some reason they're delaying it. They don't want it out," he said yesterday on CNN's Late Edition.
The CIA was given most of the committee's report several weeks ago for declassification and fact-checking. The report examines intelligence failures on Iraq, including the flawed weapons estimates.
"They were supposed to have that back to us in two weeks, then three, and it's now four," said Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican and the committee's chairman.
He said the committee's review is "not a flattering picture. The report by itself is not a good news report."
CIA spokesman Tom Crispell, asked for a response, said: "We will continue to work with the committee in order to deal with these issues."
The senators declined to discuss details of the report, but Roberts said the weapons issue "was a global failure of all of the world intelligence agencies."
The committee may bypass the CIA and approve making public the report's conclusions "to force its release," Rockefeller said.
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