John Kerry Presses for Foreign Relations Committee Hearings on Iraq Revelations in “State of Denial”

In effort no doubt to take the heat off of recent allegations against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, she made a surprise visit to Baghdad today to support embattled PM Nouri Maliki and urge "the fragile Iraqi government to accelerate efforts on national reconciliation."

John Kerry has been on the stump for various candidates in recent days and has spoken frequently about the allegations in Woodward's book. Today, in light of recent revelations about the Bush Administration’s conduct of the Iraq War revealed in journalist Bob Woodward’s book 'State of Denial', Senator John Kerry asked Senator Richard Lugar, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to hold hearings as soon as possible on the Administration’s decision-making and responses to key intelligence.

Kerry specifically asked Lugar to investigate misleading Administration statements about the current state of sectarian violence, false statements about projected levels of violence in the future, ignoring requests for more troops from the generals in charge, and failing to respond to warnings about attacks on American soil in the weeks before 9/11 took place.

The text of the letter Kerry sent Chairman Lugar today is available here.