Rice trying to dodge hearing on Iraq-Niger documents

Raw Story
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appears to be seeking to avoid testifying before a committee hearing concerning the intelligence used to justify the Iraq War and other matters, according to a report in today's Washington Post.

Al Kamen, author of the Post's "In The Loop" column, reported today that an Assistant Secretary of State wrote to Rep. Henry Waxman and said the State Department had responded to most of the requests for information sent to the Secretary of State by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

"'Our records reflect that you have sent 49 individual letters . . . since 2003, 21 of which' went to Rice, [Jeffrey T. Bergner, assistant secretary for legislative affairs] wrote, and with the exception of one letter they haven't been able to find and a few recent ones they're working on, she's responded to everything," the letter said, as Al Kamen reported today.

Kamen added that because of these earlier replies, the State Department was hoping the April 18 hearing the House Committee had scheduled would be canceled.

"'I'm sure that this thorough and comprehensive' response, department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday, will be sufficient to 'obviate the need' for a formal hearing," Kamen wrote.

While Kamen acknowledged to RAW STORY that he had received the full letter yesterday, State Department spokeswoman Nancy Beck declined to release it, stating that it was "congressional correspondence." A House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform staff member told RAW STORY that the Committee had just received the letter and was still evaluating whether or not it could be released.

RAW STORY reported last week on Rep. Waxman's request that Secretary of State Rice testify before his committee. The letter asked her to be ready to testify regarding "the Bush administration's claims that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger, White House treatment of classified information, the appointment of Ambassador Richard Jones as 'special coordinator' for Iraq, and other subjects."