Bush widens probe of intelligence flaws

WASHINGTON -- The White House announced yesterday that its inquiry into intelligence failures would include Libya, North Korea, and Iran in addition to Iraq, sparking quick criticism that the panel will be a long-delayed and watered-down examination of the intelligence that the Bush administration cited to justify the war in Iraq.

"I want to know all the facts," President Bush said. "But we also want to look at our war against proliferation and weapons of mass destruction kind of in a broader context."

Bush aides said the independent, bipartisan commission will make a "broad assessment" of "intelligence related to the threats we face in the 21st century."

Joseph Cirincione, director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said, "Defining it too broadly is just as bad as defining it too narrowly.

"It diverts attention and resources away from the major failure that has to be repaired," he said.

Cirincione also said the commission would not be truly bipartisan or independent, since Bush would appoint its members and define its scope. "I just spoke to the staff of 30 senior Democrats and none of their staff have been consulted on this panel," Cirincione said. "He's trying to dig a defensive line to stop the damage. If he does it right, the commission can help him but if he does it wrong, it will make it worse."

Top Congressional Democrats attacked the plan, arguing that such an investigation would not be independent and would not look into allegations that the White House misled the public about Iraq's weapons program.

Amid mounting pressure, Bush announced yesterday that he would appoint a bipartisan commission. David Kay, his top weapons inspector in Iraq, resigned late last month and said the weapons of mass destruction that had been a major justification for war probably do not exist. Kay called for an independent probe into why the prewar intelligence was so flawed.

"One of the major questions that needs to be addressed is whether senior administration officials, including members of the Cabinet and senior White House officials misled Congress and the public about the nature of the threat from Iraq," said a letter to Bush signed by five lawmakers. The lawmakers included Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California.

"Even some of your own statements and those of Vice President Cheney need independent scrutiny," the letter stated. "A commission appointed and controlled by the White House will not have the independence or the credibility necessary to investigate these issues."

Reached at his home yesterday, only hours after he had lunch with the president, Kay said the commission should be able to explore the allegation that administration officials misused intelligence and to examine the intelligence ction itself. "The commission should look into everything," said Kay. He said he briefed Bush on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction but did not discuss the commission.

Several other inquiries into intelligence failures in Iraq are already being conducted by Congress and the agencies themselves, but many have been bogged down in partisan bickering or have failed to look at allegations that the administration "cherry-picked" intelligence that supported their case that Saddam Hussein was an immediate threat.

"Our allies abroad and the president himself, whoever the president is, demand that it be bipartisan," Kay said, referring to the commission.

The commission, which Bush aides say will be similar to the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy, is expected to have nine members appointed by the president and to conclude its work after this year's presidential election.

Some members in the intelligence community also expressed concerns about the president's announcement of the commission. Two US intelligence officials who asked not to be identified said yesterday that while a wholesale review of US spy capabilities is in order, the probe should address the lingering questions of whether intelligence information -- right or wrong -- was politicized by senior adminsitration officials to help make the case for war.

"There needs to be a separate review of how the intelligence was used," said one official, noting that the CIA and other spy agencies are already conducting their own examination of what they knew before the Iraq invasion and what they have found on the ground.

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, one of the most vocal critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, agreed yesterday that the issue of whether intelligence was "stove-piped" -- whether bits of information supporting the case for war were funneled from spy agencies or the Pentagon directly to senior White House officials -- will remain unanswered in the probe.

Wilson's official mission in 2002 debunked claims that the ousted Iraqi leader had sought uranium in Niger. But the claim was later used in Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

"There should be two commissions," said Wilson. "One to deal with the structure of the intelligence community to enable us to better respond to present and future threats. But I also think that given that we have just undertaken a $150 billion war that has cost over 500 lives we have to find how the hell these decisions were made, who made them, and why."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan defended the administration's decision to go to war and said it was not vital that the commission conclude its inquiry before the election.

"Based on the information that we knew, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," McClellan said. "But the American people know that the decision that the president took was the right decision to confront a gathering threat and remove that threat."

Even Bush's choice of the Warren Commission as a model drew criticism yesterday.

"The people who made up the Warren Commission were a part of the system. So much was done in secrecy, so much was left unexplained." said Kermit L. Hall, president of Utah State University who sat on the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review board, which made public millions of documents that were kept secret by the Warren Commission.

"If you believe the polls today, the majority of people don't believe the Warren Commission's conclusion," Hall said. "Within months of closing, the Warren Commission was under attack."