Frank Lautenberg: “we are discussing the nomination of Representative Porter Goss to be Director of Central Intelligence. This nomination…”

“we are discussing the nomination of Representative Porter Goss to be Director of Central Intelligence. This nomination comes to the floor at a critical time for our Nation's intelligence community. With Chairman Collins's leadership and Senator Lieberman's ranking membership, the Governmental Affairs Committee is in the process this very day of marking up legislation to reform the intelligence community. It is a task that all of us on the committee are taking very seriously. After all, it was the failures of intelligence that led to the horrors of 9/11 and the loss of almost 3,000 lives. Seven hundred of them came from my home State of New Jersey. It was a painful moment in American history. It was failures of intelligence that led to our false premises for invading Iraq. I thought everyone from the President on down had agreed that we needed to take intelligence data more seriously. That is why it was so shocking to hear President Bush's odd statement yesterday about our Nation's intelligence data on Iraq. A few hours after the President spoke at the United Nations about why we went it alone in Iraq, President Bush was asked by a reporter about the CIA report that he had received in July, regarding the deteriorating situation in Iraq, which could even lead to a full-blown civil war. The President at that moment dismissed the CIA report by saying that the CIA might have been 'just guessing.' Just guessing? The Central Intelligence Agency just guessing?…”