WASHINGTON — Contending that the credibility of the Bush administration may be at risk, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that his panel will investigate the United States' failure to find evidence of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, stressed that he remains "of the opinion there has been no deception by the administration." However, he added, "the situation is becoming one where the credibility of the administration and Congress is being challenged."
Warner said increasing concern that the intelligence on Iraq was manipulated or flawed warrants an investigation of "the credibility of the information provided by both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency."
He is requesting that the hearings be conducted jointly with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He said that he had discussed the matter with Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the intelligence panel, and that Roberts was "receptive to the idea."
The decision by a prominent Republican to hold hearings on the issue is certain to add to the growing pressure on the White House to justify its prewar assertions that Iraq's alleged stocks of biological and chemical arms posed an imminent threat to the United States -- claims that were at the core of the administration's case for war.
Warner said he expects to hold at least one hearing on the issue before Congress recesses for the July 4 holiday, and other hearings will probably follow later in the summer.
Roberts was not available for comment. In the past, he has been opposed to the idea of hearings this early, arguing that the search for banned weapons in Iraq is far from over, but he also recently said the failure to find weapons could hurt U.S. credibility.
Senate aides said there has been growing pressure from other members of the intelligence committee to begin pressing for answers from the CIA and other agencies.
Roberts and Sen. John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, recently requested that the CIA and State Department explain their handling of documents the administration cited as evidence that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger, according to a Rockefeller spokeswoman. The documents have since been shown to be crude forgeries.
