Iraq Intelligence Commission

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

The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction is a panel created by Executive Order 13328, signed by U.S. President George W. Bush in February 2004.[1][2][3]

The impetus for the Commission lay with a public controversy 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 weapons of mass destruction (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." However, the commission was not directed to examine the extent to which the Bush administration may have manipulated the intelligence.[4]

Following intense study of the American Intelligence Community, the Commission delivered its report to the President on March 31, 2005, the so-called Robb-Silberman Report.[5]

  1. ^ "Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction". United States Department of State. Washington, D.C.: Federal Government of the United States. February 6, 2004. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  2. ^ Office of the Press Secretary (February 11, 2004). "Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction". Federal Register. Washington, D.C.: Federal Government of the United States. Archived from the original on November 22, 2016. Retrieved April 9, 2017. Alt URL
  3. ^ "The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction" (PDF). The New York Times. New York City. March 31, 2005. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  4. ^ Chait, Jonathan (February 9, 2015). "Republicans Still Denying Bush Lied About Iraq". New York Magazine.
  5. ^ Greg Miller and Bob Drogin (April 1, 2005). "Intelligence Analysts Whiffed on a 'Curveball'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 3, 2007. Retrieved July 24, 2007.