Requesting the President of the United States and directing the Secretary of State to provide to the House of Representatives certain documents in their possession relating to the White House Iraq Group.

Mr. Speaker, earlier today the House International Relations Committee convened to consider an important resolution of inquiry, H. Res. 505.

The resolution would have required the President and Secretary of State to turn over to the House of Representatives all white papers, minutes, notes, e-mails or other communications relating to the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

Unfortunately, the committee voted to report the resolution unfavorably, so we won't be getting those important documents.

It was also unfortunate that the committee called for a vote before all Democrats wishing to speak could be heard. Because the chairman acted in this manner, further debate was closed.

Due to this, I feel it necessary to have my statement from the International Relations Committee included in the Congressional Record.

I hope that in the future, when our committee meets on important legislation with serious international and national security implications, all members will be allowed to address their concerns vocally and publicly.

My statement for the committee record appears below.

Here we are again, asking for the answers to the same

questions we've been asking for over two and a half years.

I commend my colleagues for introducing H. Res. 505, a

resolution that would require the President and Secretary of

State to turn over to the House of Representatives all white

papers, minutes, notes, e-mails or other communications

relating to the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

It seems many of my colleagues on the other side of the

aisle have forgotten that Congress has an obligation to the

American people to oversee the activities of the Executive

Branch.

Because of that duty, we owe it to the American public to

investigate the actions of the WHIG if we are to determine

what the Bush Administration was peddling less than the

actual truth of the Iraqi threat prior to going to war.

Over the past several years, Congress has continually

failed to investigate the Administration's faulty

intelligence claims with regard to Iraq.

Now we know that Andrew Card formed the WHIG in 2002, with

the goal of marketing an

invasion of Iraq. The group included numerous senior

administration officials, including Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby,

Karl Rove and Condoleezza Rice.

It appears much of the administrations support for the Iraq

invasion came from the WHIG, and it helped create materials

for use by administration officials.

The materials were then used to make claims which it

appears the members of the WHIG knew or had reason to know

were questionable or false.

In the buildup to the war, these materials included but

were not limited to possible erroneous claims that Iraq

sought uranium from Niger; that Iraq's aluminum tubes could

be used only for nuclear weapons purposes; and that Iraq was

a training ground for Al Qaeda operatives.

Following these and similar claims, an aggressive media

assault continued. In mid-September 2002, Condoleeza Rice

stated that action on Iraq was necessary because, ``We don't

want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.''

Vice President Cheney also appeared that month on ``Meet

the Press'' stating that Saddam Hussein was ``actively and

aggressively'' working towards a nuclear bomb.

President Bush himself claimed during a 2002 major speech

in Cincinnati: ``We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda

members in bomb- making and deadly gases.''

The American people deserve answers regarding the truth

about information peddled by WHIG.

I urge my colleagues to do no more than their Congressional

service demands--we must investigate possible wrongdoing by

the Executive Branch.

If you do not fear the truth, you will vote to report this

resolution favorably.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, the House International Relations Committee will hear a resolution of inquiry into the White House Iraq Group.

A White House task force was organized in August of 2002, 7 months before the invasion of Iraq, with the objective of marketing a war in Iraq to the Congress and the American people. The group consisted of advisers to the President and Vice President, including Rove, Libby, and Rice.

According to the Washington Post, the White House Iraq Group produced white papers that provided ``gripping images and stories,'' and used ``literary license'' with intelligence; I might add, intelligence that was later proved false. These memos served as the basis for talking points for the President and his advisers.

The intelligence used in the White House Iraq Group's white papers included the false claim that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger, as well as the claim that the high-strength aluminum tubes Iraq purchased from China were to be used for the sole purpose of building centrifuges to enrich uranium.

This White House Iraq Group was putting out lies to the American people. The Congress needs to find out what happened. Tomorrow, we can find out in International Relations.

Support House Resolution 505.

One of the attempted false justifications for the war in Iraq was that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Niger to make nuclear weapons. This lie and the attempts to justify it are key to understanding not only the Libby indictments but to understanding why we are in Iraq.

Who forged the Niger documents? What role did Italian intelligence have in the forgeries? What role did the White House Iraq group have in falsely promoting the phony nuclear threat? Who forged the Niger documents? Who took us to war on false pretenses, sending thousands of our beloved soldiers to their deaths?

Sign House Resolution 505. Support that, because that requests the President and directs the Secretary of State to provide to the House of Representatives certain documents in their possession relating to the White House Iraq group.