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Kerry Didn't Read Iraq Report Before Vote -- Aides
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic candidate John Kerry (news - web sites), whose campaign demanded to know on Wednesday whether President Bush (news - web sites) read a key Iraq (news - web sites) intelligence assessment, did not read the document himself before voting to give Bush the authority to go to war, aides acknowledged.
"Along with other senators, he was briefed on the contents of the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) by (then-CIA (news - web sites) Director) George Tenet and other administration intelligence officials," said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer.
Kerry's campaign has challenged Bush to say whether he read the complete intelligence report before deciding to go to war, or whether he just read a one-page summary, which Democrats say gave him none of the dissenting views included in the full version.
The Kerry campaign stepped up the attack on Wednesday, sending out an e-mail with the headline, "Did anyone in the White House read the full National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq?"
In a conference call organized by the campaign, Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat Richard Durbin said Bush should have read the 90-page report issued in October 2002.
Asked if Kerry read it, Durbin responded, "I don't know."
Singer said the issue was not whether Kerry read the intelligence assessment himself, but why the White House had refused to release the one-page presidential summary.
"The bigger question is why ... the president -- the commander-in-chief, who decided when and how to take us to war -- won't share this document with the Congress," Singer said.
The National Intelligence Estimate concluded Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons but noted dissent from the State Department's intelligence service and other agencies.
The Bush campaign has accused Kerry of "flip-flopping" on the war.
The Massachusetts senator, who voted for the congressional resolution authorizing Bush to use force in Iraq, has since charged the president rushed to war without adequate international help or a plan to win the peace.
At campaign stops in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Bush attacked Kerry for expressing pride in having voted against an $87 billion funding bill for Iraq.
Durbin criticized the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. He said it was prepared in just three weeks instead of the customary six months.
"It was done in a hurry so that the vote would take place in October before the invasion of Iraq. And now we know that there were many aspects of that National Intelligence Estimate which were inaccurate," Durbin said.
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