Jon S. Corzine: “I thank the Chair. I appreciate very much the comments of the Senator from Michigan, particularly in informing the…”

“I thank the Chair. I appreciate very much the comments of the Senator from Michigan, particularly in informing the Senate that the charge of the Intelligence Committee includes the use of intelligence as part of its mission. Frankly, this whole discussion of this leaked memo today only reinforces my own view that we need an independent, bipartisan commission because it is now becoming a political debate about whether there is politics inside the Intelligence Committee. I listened to the earlier discussion on the floor. People are talking about Presidential politics and talking about how inappropriate it is for people to talk in a thoughtful manner about how processes may occur over a period of time. We are missing the point. There are men and women who are dying in Iraq because either the development or the use of our intelligence is not at a level where we are protecting the people of America and the men and women in uniform. The issue is not whether this is a political debate. The issue is whether Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons. It is whether Iraq had links to al-Qaida or whether Iraq attempted to acquire uranium. It is an issue of whether we are going to turn loose the names of our intelligence operatives because there is political use of the need or want to discredit someone who might challenge some of the answers to the questions I just raised.”