The power to investigate: Rep. Waxman tells Kindasleazy Rice to stop ignoring 11 requests for information
- From: "Joe S." <no_one@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:05:18 -0400
QUOTE
The Chairman of the House's Oversight and Government Reform Committee today
demanded that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice respond to 11 outstanding
requests for information sent by his office since 2003. The letters
primarily concerned claims, later proved erroneous, on the threat posed to
the United States by Saddam Hussein's government in the run up to the Iraq
War.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) warned Dr. Rice that a failure to respond to his
committee's inquiries would undermine Constitutional governance.
"Refusing to allow officials to testify before Congress...or ignoring
congressional requests for information, as you apparently ignored my
inquiries, are not consistent with our constitutional system of government,"
said the Committee's Chairman in a letter released today.
Waxman's letter stated that he was seeking to learn more about a variety of
issues from the Secretary of State, including her "role in the President's
false assertion that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger."
The California Democrat also explained that he had sent Dr. Rice 16
inquiries since 2003, but only 5 of the letters, that were also signed by
committee Republicans, had received responses. "Under the Bush
Administration, several agencies followed a policy of not responding to
minority party requests," Waxman stated.
Waxman was particularly concerned with the false claim made by President
George W. Bush in the 2003 State of the Union address concerning Iraq's
efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, as well as supporting statements by
administration officials.
He also made note of other letters to which Rice had not responded: the
White House's treatment of classified information; her appointment of
Richard Jones, a former deputy to Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul
Bremer, to a new position while he was under federal investigation; the
political considerations that went into the inclusion of nongovernmental
representatives in US delegations at international conferences; and, the
possibility of using needle exchange programs to fight blood-borne diseases
like HIV/AIDS.
For the Iraq letters, Waxman requested a response by March 23 of this year.
Waxman's full inquiry can be accessed at his committee's website.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_to_Rice_Answer_11_letters_0312.html
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