Thursday, June 26, 2003
The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.: Congress is right to plan hearings on the rising controversy about the facts behind the Bush administration's leading justification for invading Iraq, the asserted presence of weapons of mass destruction. And President Bush is right to welcome the hearings. They could clear up a lot of doubts.
Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, is wrong if he thinks he is doing the president and his fellow Republicans a service by holding his "review" mostly behind closed doors.
Appearances count
There is a real danger that any effort to downplay alleged flaws in some of that intelligence will only make it appear that the administration has something to hide.
The belief that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction was nearly universal before the invasion.
Public hearings by Congress are the right way to set this whole intelligence controversy in its proper perspective.