Top U.S. lawmakers press Pompeo for
answers on Iran arms control report
Send a link to a friend
[May 17, 2019]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairmen
of three congressional committees on national security on Thursday
pressed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to explain whether a Trump
administration arms control report was politicized and slanted
assessments about Iran.
The chairmen of Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence
committees in the U.S. House of Representatives - all Democrats - asked
Pompeo in a letter to provide a State Department briefing and documents
no later than May 23.
The letter cited a Reuters story from April 17 that reported how the
administration's annual report to Congress assessing compliance with
arms control agreements provoked a dispute with U.S. intelligence
agencies and some State Department officials.
The dissenting officials, sources said, were concerned that the document
politicized and skewed assessments against Iran.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/May/17/images/ads/current/llmi_sda_042414.png)
"Our nation knows all too well the perils of ignoring and
'cherry-picking' intelligence in foreign policy and national security
decisions," the chairmen said in their letter. They referred to the
selective use of intelligence "to justify the march to war" in Iraq in
2003.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Tensions have risen between the United States and Iran this month
following statements from Washington that the U.S. military was braced
for "possibly imminent threats to U.S. forces in Iraq" from Iran-backed
groups.
U.S. President Donald Trump has told top advisers he does not want to
get the United States involved in a war with Iran, three U.S. officials
said on Thursday.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/051719pics/news_u35.jpg)
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to reporters in flight
after a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, Iraq, May 8, 2019.
Mandel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
The letter signed by Chairmen Eliot Engel of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, Adam Smith of Armed Services and Adam Schiff of
Intelligence also questioned why the unclassified report was only 12
pages compared to 45 the previous year.
Trump has tightened economic sanctions on Iran and intensified
efforts to contain its power in the Middle East after withdrawing
Washington a year ago from a 2015 international nuclear deal with
Iran, raising fears among some in Congress about intelligence
possibly being misused to lay the groundwork to justify military
action. Under the accord, Tehran curbed its uranium enrichment
capacity, a potential pathway to a nuclear bomb, and won sanctions
relief in return.
Trump is sending an aircraft carrier group, B-52 bombers and Patriot
missiles to the Middle East to counter what Washington has called a
heightened threat from Iran in the region.
Iran described the U.S. moves as "psychological warfare", and a
British commander cast doubt on U.S. military concerns about threats
to its roughly 5,000 soldiers in Iraq.
(Reporting by Mary Milliken, David Brunnstrom and Steve Holland)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/May/17/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png) |