George Wright and agencies
Bush announces WMD commission
Fri Feb 6 15:42:24 2004
64.140.158.184

Bush announces WMD commission
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1142859,00.html

George Wright and agencies
Friday February 6, 2004

George Bush, the US president, today announced the formation of a commission to investigate failures in intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.

Mr Bush said: "We are determined to find out what happened."

In a televised briefing at 6.30pm (GMT), Mr Bush said the nine-member panel, to be chaired by a former governor of Virginia, Charles Robb, and a retired judge, Laurence Silberman, would be instructed to report on its findings in March 2005.

The move comes as new questions are emerging in both London and Washington over the quality of military intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.

He said: "We must stay ahead of constantly changing intelligence challenges. The stakes for our country cannot be higher."

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Bush names panel to review intelligence

From John King
CNN Washington
Friday, February 6, 2004 Posted: 1935 GMT ( 3:35 AM HKT)
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/06/wmd.panel/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Friday announced seven members of a bipartisan commission to conduct a year-long review of U.S. intelligence gathering, particularly about Iraq.

The panel will be co-chaired by former Sen. Charles Robb and retired federal judge Laurence Silberman. Bush named five other members, including Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.

Bush said that he had ordered all departments of the administration to assist the commission in its work and said that committee would have access to the complete report of the Iraq Survey Group, the U.S. group leading the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Other members are:

• Lloyd Cutler, who served as White House counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton

• Former appellate court judge Patricia Wald, a Democrat

• Rick Levin, president of Yale University, Bush's alma mater

• Ret. Adm. Bill Studeman, a former deputy director of CIA

"Last week, our former chief weapons inspector David Kay reported that Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons programs and activities in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions and was a gathering threat to the world," Bush said in unveiling the panel.

"Dr. Kay also stated that some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapons stockpiles have not been confirmed. We are determined to figure out why."

Bush said that the panel would compare the data that the Iraq Survey Group collects with prewar intelligence, and look at intelligence on the threats posed by Afghanistan and Libya, before and after changes there.

He said the panel would also look at intelligence on Iran and North Korea.

Bush said that the executive order creating the commission allowed up to nine members. He said that two others could be named at a later time.

The panel will issue its findings by March 31, 2005 -- after the presidential election, Bush said.

McCain was attending a NATO meeting in Munich, Germany, when his appointment was announced in Washington.

The maverick Republican from Arizona, who ran against Bush in the 2000 GOP primaries, said he thinks every attempt ought to be made to keep politics out of the commission's work.

McCain told CNN that he believes intelligence failures about evidence of weapons of mass destruction happened before the war, and the reasons for those failures needed to be found.

Earlier, Bush met at the White House with Charles Duelfer, the new head of the Iraq Survey Group that is searching for weapons and evidence of weapons programs in that country.

On Thursday, President Bush -- while acknowledging that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq -- delivered an impassioned defense of his decision to invade the country and topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, saying the world is now safer. (Full story)

"Knowing what I knew then and knowing what I know today, America did the right thing in Iraq," Bush said in a speech delivered at the port of Charleston, South Carolina.

CIA Director George Tenet also defended the prewar U.S. intelligence estimate of Iraq's suspected weapons programs and said his agency never depicted Iraq as an "imminent threat" to the United States.

The CIA "painted an objective assessment for our policy-makers of a brutal dictator who was continuing his efforts to deceive and build programs that might constantly surprise us and threaten our interests," he said. "No one told us what to say or how to say it." (Full story)

But Kay told CNN Thursday that he didn't believe the United States was threatened by Iraq's "intentions" of developing WMD, because Baghdad was unlikely to succeed in such an endeavor.

"If the administration had laid out a case based solely on the intentions of the Iraqi regime, I doubt you would have had massive public support or any international support for that. The argument last year was one not only of intentions but of capability and actual possession of weapons of mass destruction."

• Re: Bush announces WMD commission — Anonymous, Sat Feb 7 15:17
• Iraq Said to Have Tried to Reach Last-Minute Deal — nytimes.com, Fri Feb 6 15:50
• Bad Faith , NeoCons, and USZOG "POLICY" — Khury Peterson - Smith, Sat Feb 7 09:51