INTELLIGENT INQUIRY

After repeated stories of hyped intelligence about Iraq’s weapons capabilities prior to the U.S.-led war there, it is good to hear that the Senate Intelligence Committee is reviewing documents and holding hearings to find out what our government really knew before bombing Baghdad. The hearings and document review are currently taking place behind closed doors to protect sources and that amorphous reason for much government secrecy “national security.” While it makes sense to begin the review in private, the process cannot remain closed to public scrutiny for long if it hopes to be credible.

The point of this inquiry is to find out what intelligence information was presented to President Bush to help him determine that Saddam Hussein posed enough weapons of mass destruction or the capability to produce them to pose “imminent danger” to his neighbors and the United States. The next step is to find out how the information the president got was then used by Mr. Bush and other members of the administration to justify attacking Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell, for example, made a multimedia presentation to the United Nations Security Council laying out in detail how many tons of chemicals Mr. Hussein possessed.

The American people need to know if these claims were true. They can’t find out if all the congressional inquiries are done in secret.

It is encouraging that Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has not ruled out holding public meetings or issuing a public report at a later date. Committee members, such as Olympia Snowe, need to ensure that that later date is months, not years, from now. A spokesman for Ms. Snowe said the senator has always favored openness and would seek to ensure that a public discussion of the declassified portions of the intelligence material takes place “sooner rather than later.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee, which also began closed-door meetings on the intelligence questions last week, should follow this model. Sen. Susan Collins, a committee member, said she would encourage Chairman John Warner to hold open hearings “at some point” when the 150,000 troops still in Iraq and human intelligence sources in Iraq will no longer be put in danger by revealing classified information. “Public hearings are an important part of the congressional oversight process and help to ensure public confidence in governmental decisions,” Collins said. “Holding every hearing in open session would jeopardize our national security and the safety of our troops and agents. A combination of closed and open hearings would be the more appropriate approach.”

Both Maine senators are right to want some privacy now to review documents and interview officials, but the open hearings need to come quickly, not eons from now when another crisis has diverted the public’s attention. Not only do senators need to find out whether there were failings – or worse yet, misdeeds – in the gathering of intelligence in the run up to the war, they must do so in a way that restores public confidence in our intelligence gathering agencies and the officials who use their information. This can happen only with an open process.