Bush names 7 to do intelligence probe

WASHINGTON — Responding to bipartisan criticism of the intelligence that helped spur the United States to attack Iraq, President Bush on Friday appointed seven members to a new commission that will study U.S. intelligence capabilities, including prewar assessments that apparently overstated Iraqi military capabilities.

Bush named former Virginia governor and U.S. senator Charles Robb, a Democrat, and retired Judge Laurence Silberman, a Republican, to co-chair the commission.

"As we move forward in our efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, we must stay ahead of constantly changing intelligence challenges," Bush said at a hastily called appearance in the White House briefing room.

"The stakes for our country could not be higher," said Bush, with Robb and Silberman at his side.

Bush gave the commission until March 31, 2005 — well after the November presidential election — to complete its work. In addition to examining prewar claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the panel will take a broad look at U.S. efforts to track the spread of unconventional weapons to North Korea, Iran and other countries.

The president has so far found only seven of the nine people he needs for his commission. But he announced its formation Friday to meet a self-imposed deadline. The White House wanted to announce the commission before Bush appears on the NBC Sunday morning show "Meet the Press" to talk about intelligence failures in Iraq and his plans to address them.

Other members of Bush's panel include Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Lloyd Cutler, former White House counsel in the Carter and Clinton administrations; Rick Levin, president of Yale University, Bush's alma mater; Adm. Bill Studeman, a former deputy CIA director; and Pat Wald, a former appeals court judge from Washington.

"As we vet and find additional members to fill out the nine," Bush said, "we will let you know."

The president said the commission would examine "weapons of mass destruction and related 21st-century threats." That will include comparing intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq with reports from U.S. weapons inspectors who did not find the weapons stockpiles the Bush administration claimed Iraq possessed.

Bush expanded the commission's agenda to include U.S. intelligence gathering on other countries with nuclear ambitions, including North Korea, Libya and Iran. The panel also will examine operations in Afghanistan, the one-time base of the al-Qaida terrorist network.