Honorable Condoleezza Rice CC

Honorable Condoleezza Rice CC

September 13, 2002 2:39 PM TO: Honorable Condoleezza Rice CC: Vice President Richard B. Cheney Honorable Colin Powell Honorable George Tenet FROM: Donald Rumsfeld SUBJECT: Testimony on Iraq I am scheduled to testify next week for the Administration on the subject of Iraq before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. I am told that my testimony is supposed to be in support of a resolution the Administration is asking the Congress to pass and/or a resolution we are asking the UN to pass, or both. I have not seen either resolution. If I could be provided those resolutions, I would be in a position to testify. At present I am not. Has a decision been made about what the role of the various Administration officials ought to be with respect to their testimony? My assumption is that George Tenet and the intelligence community would testify on the intelligence situation, and that Colin Powell would make the case we are presenting on the President’s policy. The Defense role, on the other hand, doesn’t come into play until and unless the President makes a decision to do something in Iraq from a military standpoint. Having DoD discuss that subject before a Presidential decision would not be very helpful. Therefore, my testimony should track the presentations of Tenet and Powell, but I don’t have their testimony to review. It seems to me that the Administration should decide what it wants and when it wants to have it, for example: We desire a Congressional Resolution that says "XXX," and we want it passed not later than October 11. Certified As Unclassified January 9 2009 IAW EO 12958, as amended Chief, RDD, ESD, WHS Having made that determination, we should then back off from that date to the present and start scoping out the various activities and objectives we should undertake. For example: − What should be the objective of DoD testimony next week before the House and Senate? − What should be the objective of Colin's testimony the following week? − What briefs should we undertake for Members of Congress? − What is the case we are trying to make? Support the U.N. resolution? − Should the President address a joint session of Congress, and if so, when? I feel that we have put the cart before the horse by offering several intelligence briefings to the Hill before we are certain as to the policy objectives. Ultimately, there is no single piece of intelligence that will make a case for war, should the President decide war is required. Rather, it will be a systematic policy framework that is supported by what intelligence we have, but that goes beyond any 'smoking guns' and puts Iraq into the proper context. Any thoughts? DHR:dh 091302-7 Certified As Unclassified 2 January 9 2009 IAW EO 12958, as amended Chief, RDD, ESD, WHS .

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