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Congress presses Iraq debateTenet letter draws comments
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Both sides of the debate over attacking Iraq claimed support Wednesday from a CIA statement on Iraq and terrorism, but lawmakers said the letter was not likely to alter the outcome of House and Senate votes on a resolution authorizing the use of force against Baghdad. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, said President Bush's attempt to draw a connection between al Qaeda and Iraq in his Monday night speech "is not helpful." "He's got to do better than the shoddy piecing together of flimsy evidence that contradicts the briefings we have received by various agencies," Feingold said on the Senate floor. "I'm not hearing the same things at the briefings that I'm hearing from the president's top officials." Bush said Monday that Iraq "could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists." But CIA Director George Tenet told Congress the same day that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be more likely to give chemical or biological weapons to terrorists in the face of a U.S. assault, as a "last chance to exact vengeance." "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional, or CBW (chemical and biological weapons) against the United States," Tenet wrote to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, D-Florida. "Should Saddam conclude that a U.S.-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions." The letter emerged as both houses of Congress debated whether to give Bush the authority to go to war against Iraq if it continues to defy U.N. resolutions demanding its disarmament. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said the Tenet letter damages the Bush administration's argument that Iraq could pose a direct threat to the United States by aligning itself with terrorists. "Many of us of have said from the beginning that we have not seen any intelligence information that would give us any conclusive evidence to suggest the threat was imminent," said Daschle, D-South Dakota. "I think this public report now bears that conclusion out." But both the White House and Tenet said the CIA director's letter is consistent with Bush's arguments. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said "blackmail is something the United States has to consider" in dealing with Iraq -- "a fact that Saddam Hussein counts on to hold the world in abeyance." In a statement late Tuesday, Tenet said he sees "no inconsistency between our view of Saddam's growing threat and the view as expressed by the president in his speech."
The congressional resolution authorizing Bush to act against Iraq is expected to pass by a wide margin in both houses, and Tenet's letter appeared unlikely to sway members one way or another. In debate Wednesday, Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-California, invoked the specter of cities like Chicago or Los Angeles ending up "like Nagasaki or Hiroshima" as he argued in support of the resolution. Cunningham struggled for composure as he recounted the deaths of friends in the Vietnam War, saying, "I know the horrors brought on the men and women that we'll ask to go to war. But I also know the heartache and the pain of the families that are left behind." "I would say to my colleagues, do we want to subject them to the horrors of war in our own country?" asked Cunningham. "That's why I have this resolve. I think it's highly probable that that would happen if we don't act." -- CNN Correspondent Kate Snow and Producer Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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