More on the 'Iraq Intelligence' Commission

Earlier this week, President Bush announced that he will be putting together a commission to investigate the intelligence failure surrounding the war against Iraq. And apparently, that's quite literally what he plans to do - create the commission via executive order and appoint the people who will head the commission himself. This, of course, gives him the ability to select commissioners who will be more inclined to look at things in a more favourable light - a huge boon to a President who's trying to get re-elected.

In addition, there are reasons to be concerned regarding the scope of the investigation.

A draft of the executive order Mr. Bush is preparing to sign this week to create the commission makes no explicit reference to a study of how the intelligence assessments were used. Instead, it only directs the panel to compare intelligence findings about Iraq produced before the war with the absence of stockpiles of unconventional weapons found by American inspection teams on the ground.

This means that the commission may not be required to look at both how the intelligence was gathered and how it was used in the formation of US policy. Both issues are of critical importance. There is always a risk that any intelligence we obtain may be faulty, so how it's used - including how heavily its relied upon, what other factors are given consideration, whether policy makers are trying to push the analysts to make determinations favourable to their viewpoint, and other such issues - is critical. Good intelligence plus bad policy can generally lead to an overall negative outcome. Bad intelligence plus bad police almost inevitably leads to outright disaster.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and several other Democratic Congressmen and women have sent a letter to the President urging that the commission be appointed by Congress, so that it will truly be independent of the White House.

While we support the need for an independent commission, this commission should not be one whose members are appointed by and report to the White House. 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 the Congress and the public about the nature of the threat from Iraq. Even some of your own statements and those of Vice President Cheney need independent scrutiny. A commission appointed and controlled by the White House will not have the independence or credibility necessary to investigate these issues.

Some have suggested that the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President Kennedy, and the Pearl Harbor Commission, which investigated the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, are precedents for a presidentially appointed commission on Iraq intelligence. The Warren Commission, however, was not investigating allegations of potential misconduct involving senior administration officials, including White House officials. And the conclusions of the Pearl Harbor Commission had little credibility with the public, leading Congress to appoint a joint committee to conduct a new investigation.

For these reasons, we urge you to call upon Congress to enact a truly independent commission to examine the collection, analysis, dissemination and use by policymakers of intelligence on Iraq. This commission should be given unrestricted access to all relevant information and its members should be appointed on a bipartisan basis by the congressional leadership.

I agree with the sentiments expressed in the letter. I know I will have a much harder time accepting the results of an investigation headed by people personally appointed by President Bush. He has shown time and again that if there's a way for him to duck responsibility, he'll find it and use it.

Undoubtedly, there will be areas in which our intelligence gathering operations must be improved. But we can't look only at how the intelligence was gathered. How it was used is every bit as important, and I have little doubt that there's more than enough blame to go around in this case. We need to make sure that it gets applied fairly to everyone who misled us into this war.

Posted by thorswitch at February 3, 2004 11:18 PM | TrackBack