Under strong political pressure, President George W. Bush today established a bipartisan commission to investigate failures in intelligence used to justify the Iraq war and gave it until well after the November election to submit its conclusions.
Mr Bush picked as the chairmen of the commission former Virginia governor and senator Mr Charles Robb, a Democrat, and appeals court judge Mr Laurence Silberman, a Republican.
In a hastily arranged appearance in the White House press briefing room, Mr Bush said the commission will "look at American intelligence capabilities, especially our intelligence about weapons of mass destruction."
Mr Bush noted that former chief US weapons hunter Mr David Kay has not been able to confirm prewar intelligence that Iraq possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
"We are determined to figure out why," Mr Bush said.
"We're also determined to make sure that American intelligence is as accurate as possible for every challenge in the future," he added.
Mr Bush gave the commission until March 31st, 2005, to report back, meaning the results of the investigation would not be known until after the November election. Democrats want the report sooner.
Mr Bush is scrambling to limit the political fallout from Mr Kay's revelations that almost all the prewar intelligence about Iraq's alleged unconventional weapons was wrong.