Maurice Hinchey: “This bill has come about as a result of a very labored process, and should it pass here today, which I assume it will…”

“This bill has come about as a result of a very labored process, and should it pass here today, which I assume it will, we should not deceive ourselves into believing that we have accomplished the objective that is necessary to accomplish in order to secure the security of the people of the United States. Getting good intelligence and having a good intelligence arrangement is one thing, but the use of that intelligence, the interpretation of that intelligence, the honest use of that intelligence is yet another thing. The intelligence agency must be an objective analyzer of secret and complex information, not just a tool of the White House. The intelligence agency must serve the interests of the Nation as a whole, not serve the President politically. It is increasingly obvious how the administration twisted and tortured and distorted intelligence to support their decision to go to war in Iraq. This bill does not solve that problem. It is up to the membership of this House to deal with that issue, and the issue has not yet been dealt with. We have not exercised the proper oversight to determine why and in what ways the intelligence was distorted. We need to secure the people of this country.”