Congress Did NOT See the Same Intelligence Bush Did

Knight-Ridder reports the conclusions of a nonpartisan congressional research service inquiry into what kinds of intelligence Congress sees as compared to what the President and his White House staff see.

The bottom line: The president and his staff have access to a much larger, broader, and more comprehensive package of intelligence than Congress does. The president also has the authority to follow up on incomplete, inconclusive, or confusing intelligence; Congress does not have the authority to go back to the intelligence sources in this manner to get more information.

The Congressional Research Service, by contrast, said: "The president, and a small number of presidentially designated Cabinet-level officials, including the vice president ... have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods."
[...]
The CRS report identified nine key U.S. intelligence "products" that aren't generally shared with Congress. These include the President's Daily Brief, a compilation of analyses that's given only to the president and a handful of top aides, and a daily digest on terrorism-related matters.

So when Pres. Bush said, in his most recent speech on Wednesday...

"Some of the most irresponsible comments -- about manipulating intelligence -- have come from politicians who saw the same intelligence I saw and then voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam Hussein. ...These charges are pure politics."

...he was lying. Lying. LYING. Speaking falsely and untruthfully, in the full and complete knowledge that he was doing so.