RollCall

October 11, 2001

Inspector Condit? In addition to landing a seat on the House's new terrorism subcommittee, Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.) is suddenly holding himself up as an expert on fair and open investigations.

The embattled lawmaker, who refrained from delivering floor speeches as the Chandra Levy scandal heated up this summer, had plenty to say about the Intelligence authorization bill on Friday.

Some Members are concerned that a provision establishing an independent commission to review national security readiness in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will devolve into an endless game of finger-pointing. Others fear the commission will collide with the House subcommittee's work.

Although plenty of questions were raised just a short time ago about Condit's own cooperation with law enforcement investigations, he's now calling on intelligence officials to fully cooperate in the probe into what went wrong last month.

"It seems to me somewhat irresponsible for us not to want to have an assessment by an independent group of exactly what happened," Condit said in support of the commission's establishment.

"I think it is important for the American people also to know that there is an independent observation or an evaluation of what occurred," Condit added. "I think we really need to know exactly.

"I do not think this House ought to be frightened, fearful of an independent evaluation of what occurred.

"We think it is good for the American people to have a clear understanding about what happened," he concluded.

Does that also include letting intelligence officials conduct their own lie-detector tests?

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

Answers

2:07AM Central

That's exactly what I was thinking when I read this part:

"It seems to me somewhat irresponsible for us not to want to have an assessment by an independent group of exactly what happened," Condit said in support of the commission's establishment.

"I think it is important for the American people also to know that there is an independent observation or an evaluation of what occurred," Condit added. "I think we really need to know exactly."

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001