Byron Dorgan: “if I might respond, there is no question that any evaluation of this should be an evaluation of what kind of…”

“if I might respond, there is no question that any evaluation of this should be an evaluation of what kind of intelligence existed and how it was used. That is not an attempt to put any one person under a microscope; it is an attempt to evaluate what happened here. What on Earth happened? Again, I say there are some who want to say nothing happened. They want to allege nothing has happened. Clearly, something has happened. The top weapons inspector came back to this country and said our intelligence community has failed the President, and in fact the intelligence community failed, and we now believe that to be the case. The Secretary of State went to the United Nations and he said: We know, we know, we know, on point after point after point, slide after slide, intelligence pictures, satellite photos, we know this, we know this, we know this. It turns out we didn't know that. This is important business. This country needs to act on what we know--not what we think we know. If our intelligence community failed us, as Mr. Kay indicates it did, and he says failed the President--I say failed all of us--then the question is, Why? How did that happen? How was intelligence gathered? Where did that failure exist? And how was that intelligence used? I believe only an independent commission will get to that answer. I think it is urgent that we get there. As you know, in England they are now having such an investigation, with an end date I believe of July.…”