Bush orders investigation of WMD intelligence failure

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, reversing field, said Monday he will order an independent investigation into intelligence failures in Iraq and conferred with former chief weapons inspector David Kay. "I want to know all the facts," Bush said.\nTrying to quiet mounting election-year criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, Bush confirmed reports that he would establish such an inquiry. The focus will be not only over the Iraq problem, but also gaps in other areas, such as secretive regimes like Iran and North Korea and stateless groups such as terrorists.\nBush met with Kay at the White House not long after the president shared with reporters his thoughts on the growing controversy surrounding the accuracy of intelligence reports that preceded his decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein.\nIn the exchange following Bush's meeting with his Cabinet, the president defended his decision to attack based on intelligence Kay now says was erroneous. Kay has concluded that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction.\n"We do know that Saddam Hussein had the intent and capabilities to cause great harm," Bush said. "We know he was a danger. And he was not only a danger to people in the free world, he was a danger to his own people. He slaughtered thousands of people, imprisoned people.\n"What we don't know yet is (reconciling) what we thought and what the Iraqi Survey Group has found, and we want to look at that," the president said. "But we also want to look at our war against proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, kind of in a broader context. And so, I'm putting together an independent, bipartisan commission to analyze where we stand, what we can do better as we fight this war against terror."\nKay threw the administration's rationale for war in Iraq in doubt with his determination that Saddam did not have the weapons of mass destruction that the United States had insisted he possessed.\nKay told Congress last week "it turns out we were all wrong, probably" about the Iraqi threat.\nThe president did not set a timetable for the investigation to report its findings, and sidestepped a question about whether he owed the country an explanation before the November elections.\nHis chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, told reporters that Bush will announce the members of the commission and its timeline for completion later this week.\nWith the election exactly nine months away, McClellan said, "It is important that the commission's work is done in a way that it doesn't become embroiled in partisan politics."\nHe said Bush summoned Kay to the White House for lunch to "hear what he has learned and get his views."\nKay, passing by reporters as he left the White House, said only, "Have a nice day."\nBush's decision to go to an outside commission comes amid assertions that America's credibility is being undermined by uncertainty over flawed intelligence used as a basis for invading Iraq.\nHe initially reacted coolly to setting up such a body, then decided during the weekend to go forward. By establishing the commission himself, Bush will have greater control over its membership and mandate.\nA senior White House official discussing the situation on grounds of anonymity said the body would be patterned after the Warren Commission, which conducted a 10-month investigation that concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy.\nIn appointing the members, Bush will draw heavily from experts familiar with problems in intelligence, the White House official said, describing them as "distinguished citizens who have served their country in the past."\nSen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., whose measure to set up a similar bipartisan commission to investigate prewar intelligence was defeated in the Senate last July, said any investigative panel must be able to probe the collection and analysis of intelligence as well as the use of the information, "including whether there was any misrepresentation or exaggeration of the intelligence."\n"We must not lose sight of the big picture," Corzine said in a statement Sunday. "Americans are fighting and dying in Iraq because of what the administration told us about the intelligence"