BUSH: Implements WMD Commission
Recommendations
Wed Jun 29, 2005 16:10
64.140.158.109
Bush Administration Implements WMD Commission Recommendations
Whitehouse.gov (press release) - 2 hours ago
Today, President Bush Announced Actions To Implement Recommendations In The WMD Commission s Report To Make America Safer And To Ensure The Intelligence ...
Results
1 - 10 of about 645 for WMD COMMISSION
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 29, 2005
Fact Sheet: Bush Administration Implements WMD Commission Recommendations
Bush Administration Implements WMD Commission Recommendations
Today, President Bush Announced Actions To Implement Recommendations In The WMD Commission s Report To Make America Safer And To Ensure The Intelligence Community Is Prepared To Address The Threats Of The 21st Century. The Administration endorsed 70 of the 74 recommendations of the WMD Commission, and will study further three of the recommendations. A single classified recommendation will not be implemented.
Acting On The Commission's Recommendations Addresses Threats Posed By Terrorists And The Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction. These actions build on historic reforms undertaken since September 11, 2001, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Homeland Security Council, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Terrorist Screening Center, and the position of Director of National Intelligence.
President Bush Has Acted On The WMD Commission's Recommendations
President Bush Transformed Government Institutions to Meet New National Security Threats.
Restructuring The Justice Department And FBI To Further Integrate Their National Security Efforts. The President directed the Attorney General to bring together the Justice Department s national security elements and directed the creation of a National Security Service within the FBI that will specialize in intelligence and other national security matters and respond to priorities set by the Director of National Intelligence.
President Bush Clarified the Lines of Authority Over Information Sharing. President Bush directed that the Program Manager for Information Sharing report to the Director of National Intelligence. The Program Manager will facilitate information sharing between all levels of government, the private sector, and foreign allies to combat terrorism more effectively.
President Bush Endorsed The Establishment Of A National Counter Proliferation Center. The National Counter Proliferation Center will manage and coordinate the intelligence community s activities concerning proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and their delivery systems.
President Bush Targets Proliferation Activities. President Bush signed an Executive Order to combat trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and proliferation-related materials by cutting off financing and other support for proliferation networks.
President Bush Will Work With Congress On Recommendations That Require Legislation.
The President Supports Reforming Congressional Oversight. The Administration will work with Congress to streamline its structures for conducting oversight of intelligence community agencies as recommended by the WMD Commission and previously by the 9/11 Commission.
President Bush Supports Creating A New Assistant Attorney General Position. President Bush supports the creation of this new position to centralize responsibility for intelligence and national security matters at the Department of Justice in a single office.
President Bush Proposes Legislation To Investigate Foreign Agents. President Bush supports extending the duration of electronic surveillance in cases involving agents of foreign powers who are not U.S. persons. # # #
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050629-3.html
=============================
June 20, 2005
The WMD Commission's Shame
by Gordon Prather
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=6362
By now, all members of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction ought to have fallen on their swords.
Why?
Here is the way the commissioners began their report [.pdf] made to President Bush just a month before the London Sunday Times published the so-called Downing Street memo.
"On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, and had stockpiled and was producing chemical weapons.
"All of this was based on the assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
"And not one bit of it could be confirmed when the war was over."
What was contained in the Downing Street memo that should cause commission members to fall on their swords?
Well, central to the memo was the report Richard Dearlove director of the British equivalent of our CIA � made of his just-completed talks with CIA Director George Tenet and then-National Security Adviser Condi Rice.
Dearlove reported,
"Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Intelligence was being "fixed"?
Now, admittedly, the commission's report was about U.S. intelligence capabilities.
And the commission did note that all of these ridiculous charges about Saddam's "reconstitution" of his WMD capabilities known to have been completely destroyed under UN supervision by 1997 were based upon "assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community."
But shouldn't the commission have at least mentioned if not lamented the inexplicable failure of our intelligence community to even take note of � much less accept the reports provided them by the International Atomic Energy Agency, especially in the months leading up to the preemptive attack on Iraq to "disarm" Saddam Hussein?
In his final report before being forced to withdraw from Iraq at the end of 1998 by President Clinton, Director General ElBaradei had reported,
"The verification activities have revealed no indications that Iraq had achieved its program objective of producing nuclear weapons or that Iraq had produced more than a few grams of weapon-usable nuclear material or had clandestinely acquired such material.
"Furthermore, there are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance."
But even more significantly, ElBaradei reported that
"There were no indications of significant discrepancies between the technically coherent picture that had evolved of Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program and the information contained in Iraq's 'Full, Final, and Complete Declaration.'"
In other words, as of late 1998, the Iraqis were telling the truth!
Nevertheless, in 2002, Bush claimed to have "slam-dunk" intelligence that Saddam had not only reconstituted his nuke programs, but would have nukes to give terrorists within a year or less.
So ElBaradei and his IAEA inspectors went back in and conducted a total of 218 inspections at 141 sites, including 21 sites designated by Bush that the IAEA had never inspected before.
Result? On March 7, 2003, ElBaradei told the Security Council,
"After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq."
Twelve days later, Bush invaded Iraq.
There is no evidence that Bush-Cheney-Rice paid any attention whatsoever at any time to the null results obtained in Iraq by the UN's intrusive go-anywhere, see-anything inspectors.
On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence that Bush et al. disputed their results and attempted to influence "fix" is the word Dearlove used their conclusions.
They even bugged ElBaradei and Hans Blix, chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission, hoping to learn something they could use to influence them.
So shouldn't the commission have at least mentioned the fact that UN inspectors refuted every one of the specific charges made by Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Powell, supposedly based upon U.S. intelligence assessments?
The yellowcake from Niger? Forgeries.
The aluminum tubes? Rockets.
The mobile bio-warfare lab? Hydrogen for weather balloons.
All Bush-Cheney-Rice-Powell charges refuted publicly, with expert support.
Nevertheless, the commission concluded there was no evidence that Bush-Cheney had fixed U.S. intelligence so as to provide a justification to wage war on Iraq.
But what is inexplicable is the commission's failure to note the well-documented attempts by Bush-Cheney to intimidate ElBaradei and Hans Blix and to fix the findings of their UN inspectors.
================
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=6362
Whitehouse.gov (press release) - 2 hours ago
Today, President Bush Announced Actions To Implement Recommendations In The WMD Commission s Report To Make America Safer And To Ensure The Intelligence ...
Results
1 - 10 of about 645 for WMD COMMISSION
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 29, 2005
Fact Sheet: Bush Administration Implements WMD Commission Recommendations
Bush Administration Implements WMD Commission Recommendations
Today, President Bush Announced Actions To Implement Recommendations In The WMD Commission s Report To Make America Safer And To Ensure The Intelligence Community Is Prepared To Address The Threats Of The 21st Century. The Administration endorsed 70 of the 74 recommendations of the WMD Commission, and will study further three of the recommendations. A single classified recommendation will not be implemented.
Acting On The Commission's Recommendations Addresses Threats Posed By Terrorists And The Proliferation Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction. These actions build on historic reforms undertaken since September 11, 2001, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Homeland Security Council, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Terrorist Screening Center, and the position of Director of National Intelligence.
President Bush Has Acted On The WMD Commission's Recommendations
President Bush Transformed Government Institutions to Meet New National Security Threats.
Restructuring The Justice Department And FBI To Further Integrate Their National Security Efforts. The President directed the Attorney General to bring together the Justice Department s national security elements and directed the creation of a National Security Service within the FBI that will specialize in intelligence and other national security matters and respond to priorities set by the Director of National Intelligence.
President Bush Clarified the Lines of Authority Over Information Sharing. President Bush directed that the Program Manager for Information Sharing report to the Director of National Intelligence. The Program Manager will facilitate information sharing between all levels of government, the private sector, and foreign allies to combat terrorism more effectively.
President Bush Endorsed The Establishment Of A National Counter Proliferation Center. The National Counter Proliferation Center will manage and coordinate the intelligence community s activities concerning proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and their delivery systems.
President Bush Targets Proliferation Activities. President Bush signed an Executive Order to combat trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and proliferation-related materials by cutting off financing and other support for proliferation networks.
President Bush Will Work With Congress On Recommendations That Require Legislation.
The President Supports Reforming Congressional Oversight. The Administration will work with Congress to streamline its structures for conducting oversight of intelligence community agencies as recommended by the WMD Commission and previously by the 9/11 Commission.
President Bush Supports Creating A New Assistant Attorney General Position. President Bush supports the creation of this new position to centralize responsibility for intelligence and national security matters at the Department of Justice in a single office.
President Bush Proposes Legislation To Investigate Foreign Agents. President Bush supports extending the duration of electronic surveillance in cases involving agents of foreign powers who are not U.S. persons. # # #
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050629-3.html
=============================
June 20, 2005
The WMD Commission's Shame
by Gordon Prather
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=6362
By now, all members of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction ought to have fallen on their swords.
Why?
Here is the way the commissioners began their report [.pdf] made to President Bush just a month before the London Sunday Times published the so-called Downing Street memo.
"On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, and had stockpiled and was producing chemical weapons.
"All of this was based on the assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
"And not one bit of it could be confirmed when the war was over."
What was contained in the Downing Street memo that should cause commission members to fall on their swords?
Well, central to the memo was the report Richard Dearlove director of the British equivalent of our CIA � made of his just-completed talks with CIA Director George Tenet and then-National Security Adviser Condi Rice.
Dearlove reported,
"Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Intelligence was being "fixed"?
Now, admittedly, the commission's report was about U.S. intelligence capabilities.
And the commission did note that all of these ridiculous charges about Saddam's "reconstitution" of his WMD capabilities known to have been completely destroyed under UN supervision by 1997 were based upon "assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community."
But shouldn't the commission have at least mentioned if not lamented the inexplicable failure of our intelligence community to even take note of � much less accept the reports provided them by the International Atomic Energy Agency, especially in the months leading up to the preemptive attack on Iraq to "disarm" Saddam Hussein?
In his final report before being forced to withdraw from Iraq at the end of 1998 by President Clinton, Director General ElBaradei had reported,
"The verification activities have revealed no indications that Iraq had achieved its program objective of producing nuclear weapons or that Iraq had produced more than a few grams of weapon-usable nuclear material or had clandestinely acquired such material.
"Furthermore, there are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance."
But even more significantly, ElBaradei reported that
"There were no indications of significant discrepancies between the technically coherent picture that had evolved of Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program and the information contained in Iraq's 'Full, Final, and Complete Declaration.'"
In other words, as of late 1998, the Iraqis were telling the truth!
Nevertheless, in 2002, Bush claimed to have "slam-dunk" intelligence that Saddam had not only reconstituted his nuke programs, but would have nukes to give terrorists within a year or less.
So ElBaradei and his IAEA inspectors went back in and conducted a total of 218 inspections at 141 sites, including 21 sites designated by Bush that the IAEA had never inspected before.
Result? On March 7, 2003, ElBaradei told the Security Council,
"After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq."
Twelve days later, Bush invaded Iraq.
There is no evidence that Bush-Cheney-Rice paid any attention whatsoever at any time to the null results obtained in Iraq by the UN's intrusive go-anywhere, see-anything inspectors.
On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence that Bush et al. disputed their results and attempted to influence "fix" is the word Dearlove used their conclusions.
They even bugged ElBaradei and Hans Blix, chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission, hoping to learn something they could use to influence them.
So shouldn't the commission have at least mentioned the fact that UN inspectors refuted every one of the specific charges made by Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Powell, supposedly based upon U.S. intelligence assessments?
The yellowcake from Niger? Forgeries.
The aluminum tubes? Rockets.
The mobile bio-warfare lab? Hydrogen for weather balloons.
All Bush-Cheney-Rice-Powell charges refuted publicly, with expert support.
Nevertheless, the commission concluded there was no evidence that Bush-Cheney had fixed U.S. intelligence so as to provide a justification to wage war on Iraq.
But what is inexplicable is the commission's failure to note the well-documented attempts by Bush-Cheney to intimidate ElBaradei and Hans Blix and to fix the findings of their UN inspectors.
================
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.
http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=6362
