Iraq Intelligence Commission
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The Iraq Intelligence Commission was a panel created by executive order 13328 of U.S. President George W. Bush to investigate United States intelligence, specifically in regards to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The official title of the panel was Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. The commission made its final report on March 31, 2005.
The commission concluded that the intelligence community was "dead wrong" in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, constituting a major intelligence failure. However, the commission found "no indication" that the intelligence community distorted the evidence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The report offered 74 recommendations to the President for improving the U.S. intelligence community.
The commission's mission was, in part, "to ensure the most effective counter-proliferation capabilities of the United States and response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the ongoing threat of terrorist activity." With regards to Iraq, the commission should "specifically examine the Intelligence Community's intelligence prior to the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom and compare it with the findings of the Iraq Survey Group and other relevant agencies or organizations concerning the capabilities, intentions, and activities of Iraq relating to the design, development, manufacture, acquisition, possession, proliferation, transfer, testing, potential or threatened use, or use of Weapons of Mass Destruction and related means of delivery."
Commission members were:
- Charles Robb, Democrat, former U.S. Senator and governor of Virginia, co-chair
- Laurence Silberman, Republican, former U.S. Court of Appeals judge, served in Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations, co-chair
- John McCain, Republican, U.S. Senator from Arizona
- Lloyd Cutler, former White House counsel to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
- Patricia Wald, Democrat, former appellate judge.
- Rick Levin, president of Yale University
- Retired Admiral Bill Studeman, former CIA deputy director
- Charles M. Vest, former president of MIT
- Henry S. Rowen, former assistant defense secretary.
The first seven members of the panel were appointed on February 6, 2004, the date of the executive order which created it. The two final members, Vest and Rowen, were appointed on February 13.
Days before the American commission was announced, the government of the United Kingdom, the U.S.'s primary ally during the Iraq War, announced a similar commission to investigate British intelligence, known as the Butler Inquiry.
The commission was independent and separate from the 9-11 Commission.
Related topics
External links
- Text of final report (http://www.wmd.gov/report/index.html)
- Text of Executive Order (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040206-10.html) (whitehouse.gov)
- Online NewsHour, "Intelligence Probe (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june04/intelligence_02-06.html)". February 6, 2004.
- International Herald Tribune February 6, 2004 Not everyone got it wrong on Iraq's weapons (http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=128281&owner=(IHT)&date=20040206141507) by Scott Ritter