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Bush and his opposittion to investigations!

Discussion in 'Seasoned Marijuana Users' started by Bud Head, Feb 2, 2004.

  1. WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday dropped his opposition to an independent investigation of apparent U.S. intelligence failures in Iraq, saying he would consult with former weapons inspector David Kay before appointing a bipartisan commission to examine the politically sensitive issue.

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    Trying to quiet mounting election-year criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, Bush said the commission will extend to other areas, such as secretive regimes like Iran and North Korea and stateless groups such as terrorists.

    Bush defended his decision to go to war on intelligence that Kay now says was erroneous. Kay has concluded that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

    "I want all the facts,” Bush said. “We do know that Saddam Hussein had the intent and capabilities to cause great harm we know he was a danger ... He slaughtered thousands of people."

    President to receive briefing from Kay
    Bush said the commission would "analyze where we stand, what we can do better as we fight this war against terror." He said he would sit down with Kay soon to get a briefing.

    Kay 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.

    Kay told Congress last week that "it turns out we were all wrong, probably" about the Iraqi threat.

    The president did not set a timetable for the investigation to report its findings, and he sidestepped a question about whether the country was owed an explanation before the November elections.

    But given the broad mandate, it appeared unlikely that the investigation's findings would be known known until after voters go to the polls on Nov. 2.

    Bush's decision comes amid assertions that America's credibility is being undermined by uncertainty over flawed intelligence used as a basis for invading Iraq. Despite months of searching, U.S. inspectors have found no banned weapons in Iraq.

    Political pressure has been mounting
    Administration officials had said that an independent investigation is unnecessary, but Bush has been under mounting political pressure to agree to an inquiry and decided over the weekend to go forward, a senior White House official told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    Lawmakers from both parties say America's credibility has been undermined by uncertainty over flawed intelligence that led the United States into war in Iraq.

    Related news
    Special report: The Intelligence Wars





    “I don't see there's any way around it,” Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday on CNN's “Late Edition.” “We need to open this up in a very nonpartisan, outside commission, to see where we are,” Hagel said.


    By setting up the investigation himself, Bush will have greater control over its membership and mandate. The senior White House official said it would be patterned after the Warren Commission, so named for its chairman Earl Warren, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, which led a 10-month investigation that concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy.

    Timing a sensitive issue
    At this point, the White House has not decided on a deadline for the investigation - a sensitive issue since its findings could become an issue in the presidential campaign.

    Related news
    Britain to order its own inquiry





    “That's not something you want to do from horseback,” Kay told “Fox News Sunday. “It's going to be a time-consuming process. Whether it's going to take six months or nine months, I have no idea at this point.”

    Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the commission must start investigating soon. Delaying any report until after the election would be a “big mistake,” he said on Fox.

    David Albright, a former weapons inspector, told The Associated Press he feared the administration might try to use the commission as a way to delay judgments about the intelligence community and the administration's use of the information it receives.

    “The bottom line for them (the Bush administration) is to delay the day of reckoning about their use of the weapons of mass destruction information,” Albright said.

    “David Kay can blame the CIA and say, ‘Oh, I made all these comments based on what I heard from the intelligence community.' President Bush can't do that. He's the boss.”
     
  2. Just what a seasoned toker wants to read about... Bush.
     

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