The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction was a panel created by Executive Order 13328 signed by U.S. President George W. Bush in February of 2004. The impetus for the Commission lay with a public windstorm occasioned by statements, including those of Chief of the Iraq Survey Group David Kay, that the Intelligence Community had grossly erred in judging that Iraq had been developing WMD before the March 2003 start of "Operation Iraqi Freedom." President Bush therefore formed the Commission, but gave it a broad mandate not only to look into any errors behind the Iraq intelligence, but also to look into intelligence on WMD programs in Afghanistan and Libya, as well as to examine the capabilities of the Intelligence Community to address the problem of WMD proliferation and "related threats." The Commission, following intense study of the Intelligence Community, delivered its report to the President on March 31, 2005. An executive order is a legally binding edict issued by a member of the executive branch of a government, usually the head of that branch. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is a politician and the current (43rd) president of the United States. ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...

President Bush holds a press briefing at the White House on Friday, Feb. 6, 2004, announcing the formation of the commission. He is flanked by commission co-chairs Senator Charles Robb (left) and Judge Laurence Silberman (right).

Regarding Iraq, 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 and that this constituted a major intelligence failure. The Commission's report described in great detail the systemic analytical, collection, and dissemination flaws that led to the Community's erroneous assessments about Iraq's alleged WMD programs. Chief among these flaws were failures by certain agencies to gather all relevant information and analyze fully information on purported centrifuge tubes, insufficient vetting of key sources, particularly the source "Curveball," and somewhat overheated presentation of data to policymakers. The commission found "no indication" that political pressure had been applied to distort the Intelligence Community's assessments on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Original caption: President George W. Bush holds a press briefing at the White House Friday, Feb. ... Original caption: President George W. Bush holds a press briefing at the White House Friday, Feb. ...

The report also looked forward, recommending a large number of organizational and structural reforms. Of these 74 recommendations to the President, he accepted 69 of them fully in a public statement released on June 29, 2005.

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." The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was a fact finding mission sent by the coalition after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq to find Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs developed by Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein. ...

Commission members were:

• Laurence Silberman, Republican, retired U.S. Court of Appeals judge, Deputy Attorney General under Presidents Nixon and Ford, Ambassador to Yugoslavia, et al., co-Chairman
• Charles Robb, Democrat, former U.S. Senator from and Governor of Virginia, co-Chairman
• John McCain, Republican, U.S. Senator from Arizona
• Lloyd Cutler, Democrat, former White House counsel to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Cutler changed status to "Of Counsel" shortly after the Commission formed.
• Patricia Wald, Democrat, retired Judge of the DC Court of Appeals.
• Rick Levin, President of Yale University.
• Retired Admiral Bill Studeman, former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, Director of NSA.
• Charles M. Vest, former President of MIT
• Henry S. Rowen, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and President of RAND.

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. Laurence Silberman is an American judge, formerly a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals. ... The United States Courts of Appeals (or circuit courts) are the mid-level appellate courts of the United States federal court system. ... Charles Spittal Chuck Robb (born June 26, American politician. ... State nickname: Old Dominion Other U.S. States Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Governor Mark R. Warner Official languages English Area 110,862 km² (35th)  - Land 102,642 km²  - Water 8,220 km² (7. ... Office: Senior Senator, Arizona Political party: Republican Term of office: January, 1987 – Present Preceded by: Barry Goldwater Succeeded by: Incumbent (2011) Date of birth: August 29, 1936 Place of birth: U.S. Panama Canal Zone Marriage: Cindy McCain John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is an American politician. ... Lloyd N. Cutler (November 10, 1917 - May 8, 2005) was an American attorney, best known for serving as White House Counsel during the Presidential administrations of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. ... Order: 39th President Vice President: Walter Mondale Term of office: January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981 Preceded by: Gerald Ford Succeeded by: Ronald Reagan Date of birth: October 1, 1924 Place of birth: Plains, Georgia First Lady: Rosalynn Carter Political party: Democratic James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr. ... Order: 42nd President Vice President: Al Gore Term of office: January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 Preceded by: George H. W. Bush Succeeded by: George W. Bush Date of birth: August 19, 1946 Place of birth: Hope, Arkansas First Lady: Hillary Rodham Clinton Political party: Democratic William Jefferson Clinton (born... Patricia Wald Patricia McGowan Wald (born 1928) is an American judge. ... Richard Charles Levin (b. ... This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. ... William O. Studeman is a retired admiral of the United States Navy and former deputy director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. ... Charles Marstiller Vest (Chuck) (born 1941) is a U.S. educator and engineer. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research institution and university located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts along the Charles River and across from Bostons Back Bay district. ... February 6 is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

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. For other uses of the term, see Iraq war (disambiguation) The 2003 invasion of Iraq (also called the 2nd or 3rd Persian Gulf War) began on March 20, 2003, when forces belonging primarily to the United States and the United Kingdom invaded Iraq without the explicit backing of the United... On February 3, 2004 the British Government announced an inquiry into the intelligence relating to Iraqs weapons of mass destruction which played a key part in the Governments decision to invade Iraq (as part of the U.S.-led coalition) in 2003. ...

The commission was independent and separate from the 9-11 Commission. The Commissions seal The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up in late 2002 to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks including preparedness for and the immediate response...

Related topics

• Iraq Survey Group
• Office of Special Plans
• Operation Rockingham

The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was a fact finding mission sent by the coalition after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq to find Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs developed by Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein. ... The Office of Special Plans is a Pentagon unit created by Donald Rumsfeld and led by Douglas Feith, dealing with intelligence on Iraq. ... Operation Rockingham is an intelligence unit whose existence was revealed in June 2003 by the Scottish Sunday Herald. ...

External links

• Text of final report
• Text of Executive Order (whitehouse.gov)
• Online NewsHour, "Intelligence Probe". February 6, 2004.
• International Herald Tribune February 6, 2004 Not everyone got it wrong on Iraq's weapons by Scott Ritter