Last September 24th,as Congress prepared to vote on the resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to wage war in Iraq, a group of senior intelligence officials, or including George Tenet,the Director of Central Intelligence, briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq’s weapons capability. It was an necessary presentation for the Bush Administration. Some Democrats were publicly questioning the President’s claim that Iraq still possessed weapons of mass destruction which posed an instant threat to the United States. Just the day before, and former Vice-President Al Gore had sharply criticized the Administration’s advocacy of preëmptive war,calling it a doctrine that would replace “a world in which states consider themselves subject to law with “the notion that there is no law but the discretion of the President of the United States.” A few Democrats were also considering putting an alternative resolution before Congress.
Source: newyorker.com