Bush creates panel to review Iraq intelligence

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, February 07, 2004

Bush creates panel to review Iraq intelligence

US President George W. Bush on Friday established an independent, bipartisan commission to review failures in prewar intelligence on Iraq that the administration used to justify the Iraq war.

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US President George W. Bush on Friday established an independent, bipartisan commission to review failures in prewar intelligence on Iraq that the administration used to justify the Iraq war.

The panel will "look at America's intelligence capabilities, especially our intelligence about weapons of mass destruction," Bush told a news briefing at the White House.

Bush named seven people to sit on the nine-member commission, with former Senator Charles Robb and retired federal judge Laurence Silberman to head commission, and directed the panel to submit its report in March of 2005.

Republican Senator John McCain from Arizona, Bush's rival in the 2000 presidential race, was also included in the commission. McCain was among those people who have called for an independent commission to investigate prewar intelligence.

Other members appointed by Bush were Lloyd Cutler, former White House counsel to Presidents Carter and Clinton, former federal judge Patricia M. Wald, Yale University president Richard C. Levin, and Adm. William O. Studeman, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The remaining two panel members were yet to be selected, said the president.

Ahead of the announcement, Bush met with Charles Duelfer, who replaced David Day, who resigned late last month, to head the Iraq Survey Group that has been hunting for evidence of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

"The president said to him that he wants him to find the truth.It is important that we know all the facts, that's what the president expressed," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at a briefing on Friday.

On criticisms that the hand-picked panel cannot be independent, McClellan said the commission would be independent bipartisan, as "the president will appoint highly qualified individuals with integrity who have a lot of experience to bring to the table."

Bush has come under increasing pressure following remarks by the former chief weapons inspector last week that Iraq did not have stockpiles of unconventional weapons that the Bush administration used to justify the invasion of Iraq in March last year.

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