State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss on Wednesday told the Knesset State Control Committee that 10 percent of his office was involved in the investigation of the war, adding that nobody implicated in the fighting was immune to questioning.

"We will investigate everyone who had a hand and leg in the war," Lindenstrauss told the committee.

Lindenstrauss said his office would investigate all intelligence matters, from the defense establishment plenum, the government rank-and-file in all matters concerned with the transfer of information and instructions.

	Advertisement

He also said he would investigate the functioning of the police as well as rescue and firefighting teams.

Lindenstrauss said leaders 35 local authorities in the north were to be investigated, 24 of which have already been questioned.

The comptroller said an interim report on the investigation would be released at a near date. If the report was grave enough, he said, the committee would ask the Supreme Court president to open a state inquiry.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to forge ahead with efforts to convene the Admoni Committee despite Attorney General Menachem Mazuz' decision from Tuesday to disqualify two panel candidates over possible conflicts of interest.

The two candidates for the committee that is due to examine the government's handling of the war in Lebanon are Yedidya Ya'ari and David Ivry.

PM to replace 2 disqualified candidates for Admoni panel
A Prime Minister's Office spokesman said Tuesday that Olmert plans to appoint two new members in place of Ya'ari and Ivry from the original list of potential candidates. Olmert was set to speak with the new candidates last night or this morning so as to seek their agreement to serve on the panel.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which filed a High Court petition against the appointment of Ya'ari and Ivry to the Admoni Committee, welcomed Mazuz's decision. "Anyone who bases a committee on such unsafe ground, with the expectation it will cover up the truth, will find that his committee comes tumbling down; good people have been hurt by this, and in the end, he (Olmert) will have to set up a state commission of inquiry."

Olmert plans to seek cabinet approval for the committee's new composition Sunday, and members of his bureau said the new members will not be tainted by any possible conflict of interest. The cabinet was due to vote on the committee's establishment yesterday, but the debate was postponed due to difficulties in filling the positions.

Olmert remains steadfast in his opposition to a state commission of inquiry. "He will not be moved," a source in his bureau said.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Tuesday announced that two of the candidates for the committee investigating the government's handling of the war in Lebanon would be disqualified due to conflicts of interest.

The Supreme Court ordered the state on Tuesday to respond to a petition by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, submitted Monday against the appointments of Yedidya Ya'ari and David Ivry to the Admoni committee.

Ya'ari and Ivry were among five candidates nominated to head the committee. The candidates had not yet been approved by Mazuz, and arrangements have not yet been signed on preventing a conflict of interest, therefore the committee still cannot be established legally.

Ya'ari's placement on the panel is problematic because he is the president of RAFAEL Armament Development Authority, a governmental defense company.

The Defense Ministry is a RAFAEL client and the company also serves as a "national laboratory" for research and development for the defense establishment.

As was published in Yedioth Ahronoth, Ivry represents Boeing in Israel, which is a supplier to the Defense Ministry. During the war, Israel used helicopters, bombs and missiles manufactured by Boeing.

Key Knesset panel urges state probe of war
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, in a slap to Olmert, Tuesday ended a stormy session by urging a state commission of inquiry into official failures during the recent war.

By law, only the cabinet, or in special cases, the Knesset State Control Committee, are empowered to order a state inquiry. But the declarative decision of the Foreign Affairs and Defense panel is the latest in a series of steps intended to press Olmert to move for a full state investigation.

Olmert declared last week that he opposed such an inquiry, which would have sweeping powers of investigation and recommendation, saying that it would paralyze the army and other crucial sectors for long periods of time.

The prime minister instead announced that the investigation would be carried out by three separate bodies, one committee to probe the government's handling of the war, a second panel to look into the army's preparedness and performance, and a third study, to be carried out by the State Comptroller's Office, of the actions of local and regional officials.

The powers of investigation and recommendation of the first two panels are limited, and they will report not to the public, but to the cabinet and the prime minister.

In the Tuesday Knesset session, eight members of the committee voted in favor of the call for a state inquiry, including lawmakers of the leftist Meretz, the Likud, the rightist National Union ? National Religious Party, and Labor, the main coalition partner of Olmert's Kadima.

Three committee members voted against: committee chairman Tzachi Hanegbi and MK Otniel Shneller, both of Kadima, and MK Nissim Ze'ev of Shas.

Lawmakers Effi Eitam of the National Union and Matan Vilnai of Labor said after the meeting that the significance of the call for a state inquiry was a statement of no-confidence in the prime minister's decision to create a "committee of examination" to probe the government's handling of the war.