New intel member headed into Syria and strife-torn Lebanon

Media release

December 11, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, while on a fact-finding mission to Syria and Lebanon, was named today to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid informed Nelson of the appointment in a telephone call Monday morning to the Florida senator in Israel.

“The security of our country depends largely on accurate and timely intelligence,” Nelson said, via telephone from Jerusalem. “I take this assignment from Senator Reid very seriously.”

Nelson left Washington on Saturday for a multi-country trip to the Middle East, which includes a scheduled stop in Syria on Wednesday and Lebanon on Thursday. In Syria, he’s expected to be the first U.S. official to meet with President Basher al-Assad in the wake of the Iraq Study Group report.

The study group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, said a key to achieving stability in Iraq is a stepped-up diplomatic effort involving Syria and Iran – despite the many differences between the U.S. and the two countries seen by Nelson and others.

Nelson’s trip "was set before we knew what this Iraq Study Commission was going to say, but I felt the same thing” about ways to achieve stability in Iraq, the senator has told the Associated Press.

In addition to the Intelligence Committee, Nelson is a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations panels. He has made two previous trips to Syria.

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