Barney Frank: “I do not find myself critical of the intelligence community. The criticism I and many others have is of the political…”

“I do not find myself critical of the intelligence community. The criticism I and many others have is of the political leadership which I think misused the intelligence and made faulty decisions. The point about what we are saying is this. We now, without weapons of mass destruction, without a tie to al Qaeda, have been told that the rationale for this was essentially to extend democracy. I am in favor of extending democracy; although extending it by military invasion is a difficult policy. But what troubles me is that in the name of advancing democracy internationally, the majority is debasing it at home. No one can think, who understands the tenets of democracy, that this procedure today comes close to it. There is no justification whatsoever for this legislation to have been drawn up and then brought to us without amendment. The reason is that the majority is afraid that if amendments were available, it would bring into discussion things they do not want to talk about. Of course, we support the troops.…”