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White House Resolve Debated on WMD Report
While U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to take action on recommendations from the WMD intelligence commission, Democrats and analysts questioned yesterday whether anything would come from the panel’s report (see GSN, March 31). “To win the war on terror, we will correct what needs to be fixed,” Bush said yesterday at a press conference. White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend would work to “assure that concrete actions are taken,” Bush said. The commission focused on flaws on the intelligence-gathering effort leading to the war in Iraq, and on U.S. assessments of other WMD programs in nations such as Iran and North Korea. Its recommendations include developing a National Counterproliferation Center, integrating intelligence collection, improving analysis and increasing information sharing by agencies. Panel members said their job did not include examining any role the White House might have played in manipulating the information, according to AP. That did not sit well with some Democrats. “The investigation will not be complete unless we know how the Bush administration may have used or misused intelligence to pursue its own agenda,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) (John Lumpkin, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 1). Analysts in Europe also expressed skepticism about the report and changes that might arise from it, AP reported. “The information is not new,” said Eberhard Sandschneider, a policy scholar for the German Council on Foreign Relations. “We have learned the changing reasons for going into Iraq from month to month to month. It started with weapons of mass destruction and ended with human rights.” “I think they will ignore it,” said Danny Warner, a U.S. international relations expert in Geneva. “No heads will roll, nothing will fundamentally change,” Warner added. “I just think everyone’s kind of given up on the United States” (Sam Cage, Associated Press, March 31).
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