This nation is fortunate to have Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts serving as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

There is much debate about whether President Bush knowingly included false information about Iraq in his State of the Union message to help justify and generate support for U.S. action against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. There is growing concern about this nation’s intelligence-gathering capabilities.

Roberts is a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is patriot, and he will do everything in his power to seek the truth concerning these and other issues surrounding our country’s intelligence capabilities.

Roberts and his fellow Intelligence Committee members are studying every facet of intelligence gathering used in preparing for the invasion of Iraq. They are looking at what information U.S. officials had or didn’t have about Iraqi weapons systems and other matters that played a significant role in this nation’s security.

Great pressure is being applied to try to force Roberts to open up or expand his committee’s work, but he is sure to stand his ground and do what he thinks is in the best interests of conducting a thorough, nonpartisan study or investigation of the credibility of Uncle Sam’s intelligence capabilities.

Roberts is not a grandstander, and he will not use the public spotlight now focused on his committee to score personal political points. He will not stand in the way of disclosing pertinent information even if it might be harmful or embarrassing to the Bush administration.

After his graduation from Kansas State University, Roberts served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, attaining the rank of captain. He is the senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairing the subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. It is interesting to note that, after the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center, columnist David Broder, writing in The Washington Post, said, “In words that now appear to be eerily prescient, Roberts warned (in 1999) that there was a ‘real opportunity for a handful of zealots to wreak havoc on a scale that hitherto only armies could attain.'”

Roberts long has had a deep concern about the quality and timeliness of America’s intelligence system. In recent months, he has been working with KU faculty member Felix Moos on a plan to strengthen and improve America’s understanding of past and present social, political, religious, historical and cultural factors in countries around the world and how those factors may have an impact on the United States.

It is good to have Roberts serving in the Senate and representing the people of Kansas. Roberts’ ascension into the Intelligence Committee chairmanship couldn’t have come at a better time for the good of this country.