Nothing smart about Senate Intelligence Committee

Raw Story takes a look at yet another player in the ensemble troupe of Bush-men that led us with lies to a disastrous war.

Today's focus is on "Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Pat Roberts (R-KS) [who] ensured there was no serious investigation into how the administration fixed the intelligence that took the United States to war in Iraq or the fabricated documents used as evidence to do so." Here's the material facts.

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush issued an order to the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, and his cabinet members that severely curtailed intelligence oversight by restricting classified information to just eight members of Congress.

"The only Members of Congress whom you or your expressly designated officers may brief regarding classified or sensitive law enforcement information," he writes, "are the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate."

In yet another damning timeline, Raw Story illustrates how Pat Roberts used his power to thwart intelligence in order to advance the White House agenda.

The evidence of fraud has now reached critical mass. It is no longer possible for intelligent Americans to deny that the White House lied. The only question that remains is how much longer misled conservatives can cling to the fictions and avoid admitting that they have been taken in by a massive (neo-)con game.