A little more than five years ago, President Bush started a war by invading Iraq. So, after all this time, why should anyone care that last week the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that showed that the president and his associates misrepresented the prewar intelligence regarding Iraq?

First, it is outrageous that the president misled the public over such a grave matter. In doing so he violated the public trust and abused his authority as president. Secondly, it is important that the public record include documentary evidence of these abuses. This report makes it more difficult for these lies to survive, despite the efforts of those who seek to maintain them.

One of these insincere vocalists is Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. As a member of the intelligence committee since he first took office in January 2003, he has steadfastly supported and repeated Bush's fraudulent claims. His response to the evidence cited in the report included, "Unfortunately, the Committee has wasted countless hours only to show what we already knew four years ago, that policymakers' statements turned out to be wrong after the war because the statements were based on flawed intelligence."

Chambliss did a masterful job of constructing this statement. Everyone agrees that some of the prewar intelligence on Iraq was flawed. According to an analysis by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in January 2004, "Prior to 2002, the intelligence community appears to have overestimated the chemical and biological weapons in Iraq. ..."

However, the Bush administration went far beyond even the exaggerated claims of the CIA. Chambliss, as a member of the intelligence committee, should have known this.

He should have known that the intelligence community's assessments contradicted many key statements of Bush and his associates. When administration officials claimed that Iraq and al-Qaida were collaborators, Chambliss should have known it to be false. When Vice President Dick Cheney announced, "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use them against our friends, our allies and against us," Chambliss had access to the intelligence that indicated that statement was untrue.

Chambliss made no effort to correct the record. Sadly, he was not alone. Congress as a whole was negligent in its responsibility of oversight. However, as the years have passed, increasing numbers of legislators have come to acknowledge their failures, even many Republicans. Chambliss, a notable exception, persists in denying the truth that our president lied to us.

So, with an ever increasing death toll in Iraq and enormous amounts of taxpayer money going to fund the war and occupation, does it matter that President Bush's justifications for starting this war were fraudulent? Does it matter that some Republicans continue to perpetuate these misrepresentations?

Administration officials must be held accountable for their misdeeds. Voters should be aware of the negligence or dishonesty of legislators like Chambliss so they can make informed decisions in November.

> Don McAdam lives in Atlanta.