Rice faces tough questions on Iraq in House, Senate Committees
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to defend herself in a congressional hearing on Wednesday against a lawmaker's allegation that she and others in the Bush administration covered up information that would have cast doubt on the president's reasons for going to war against Iraq.
Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler quoted a recent study that set out "935 false public statements" by Rice, Bush and others, quoting intelligence reports that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
"This study has found that you, Madam Secretary, made 56 false statements to the American people where you repeatedly pump up the case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and exaggerate the so-called relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaida," Wexler said.
Rice denied that, and said her statements and the decision to go to war were based on the compiled findings of the country's intelligence agencies. Then she said, "Now Congressman, I take my integrity very seriously, and I did not at any time make a statement that I knew to be false or that I thought to be false to pump up anything.