Tuesday, May 29, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new biography's suggestion that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't personally read a key intelligence report before her 2002 vote to authorize war in Iraq has raised eyebrows, but Clinton was not alone.
Clinton did not read the 90-page, classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which summarized the reports of U.S. intelligence agencies, but was briefed on it several times, a spokesman told CNN.
The book, "Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," is by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr. It is one of two upcoming biographies of Clinton, the former first lady turned New York senator.
She is one of four current and former Democratic senators now seeking the presidential nomination who voted for the October 2002 resolution that authorized President Bush to use force in Iraq, clearing the way for the invasion the following March. Two Republican senators who are now presidential hopefuls, John McCain of Arizona and Sam Brownback of Kansas, also voted in favor of the resolution.
Like Clinton, a spokesman for McCain told CNN his boss was briefed on the document "numerous times, and read the executive summary." A spokesman for Sen. Christopher Dodd said the Connecticut Democrat did not read the document, either.
Efforts to contact other lawmakers for comment were unsuccessful Monday.
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