UNITED STATES

US INTELLIGENCE

US intelligence inquiry   US President George Bush has made the final appointments to a commission to investigate pre-war intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which to date have not been found!

The panel has been given more than a year to complete its work, and will not report until well after the next US presidential elections in November. The White House says such a time span is needed as the panel has a broad brief to examine the possibility of wider intelligence shortcomings. Democrats are unhappy with the inquiry. They question how a panel appointed by the president can be independent, and also want the body to examine charges that the White House manipulated intelligence.

To compare intelligence about Iraq with what has been found on the ground there. It is unclear if it will look at how the information was used, but one prominent panel member says he wants it to look at the role of politicians. To review intelligence on countries the US deems to be threats, such as Iran and North Korea, as well as countries formerly deemed threats, such as Libya and Afghanistan. To take advantage of unrestricted access to intelligence agencies and to the work of the Iraq Survey Group, which is hunting weapons. To make recommendations to ensure that intelligence is as accurate as possible in the future. To submit its report by 31 March, 2005.

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  Photo: It is thought McCain will lend a "streak of independence"

  Charles Robb, who will be co-chair of the commission, is a former Virginia governor and ex-senator. The former marine reservist, 64, fought in Vietnam. As a senator he was on the Armed Service, Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees. Laurence Silberman, 68, will be the second chairman. As a judge appointed to the federal court of appeal in Washington by Ronald Reagan, he hit the headlines in 1989 when he helped overturn the conviction of Oliver North in the Iran-Contra affair. He also served as an ambassador to Yugoslavia between 1975 and 1977. John McCain, 67, is a Republican senator with a reputation for independence who has been critical of President Bush. The former Vietnam POW wants the panel to look at the role of politicians in the use of intelligence, but has already said he does not believe the president manipulated information. The octogenarian Lloyd Cutler is a Democrat lawyer who served as White House counsel under Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Rick Levin, 56, is a Democrat and president of Yale University, Bush's alma mater. Admiral Bill Studeman, 64, is a former deputy director of the CIA and now a senior executive at Northrop Grumman, a military contractor that does work in weaponry and in planning and detection for unconventional weapons. The only female on the team, Patricia Wald, 75, is a retired appeals court judge who serves at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, Netherlands. Charles Vest, 62, has been president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1990. He led a US Department of Energy task force on the future of science programs in 2002-2003 and chaired a presidential advisory commission on the redesign of the international space station in 1993-1994. Henry Rowen, 79, is an emeritus professor at Stanford University's business school. He has served as assistant secretary of Defense for international security, chairman of the US Intelligence Council, and was deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for international security in the 1960s.