#276 - We Want to be Positive

Quick, guess which regime Condelezza Rice was referring to last Thursday:

"When you are dealing with secretive regimes that want to deceive, you’re never going to be able to be positive" about intelligence, Ms Rice told NBC. (via The Scotsman)

If you guessed the one that’s refusing to endorse an independent investigation of intelligence failures regarding WMD in Iraq, you’d be wrong.

Update, 02/01/2004:

In a reversal of his position, President George W. Bush will announce this week the establishment of a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate apparent flaws in intelligence used to justify the Iraq war, senior administration officials said on Sunday.

Bush, who had earlier opposed such a commission, was under strong pressure from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to support an independent probe into intelligence that said Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons when in fact none have been found.

Assertions that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction was the main reason cited by Bush for the war, in which more than 500 U.S. troops have died.

"The president wants a broad, bipartisan and independent review of our intelligence, particularly relating to weapons of mass destruction and counter-proliferation efforts," said a senior Bush administration official, who asked to remain unidentified.

The commission is expected to be given until next year to report back, instead of this year as Democrats demand. This represents an attempt to avoid having the probe's results emerge as a campaign issue, as Democratic challengers attempt to derail the president's re-election bid in November. (via Reuters)

Yeah, George Bush "wants" a broad, bipartisan and independent review the same way he "wants" to get kicked out of office next November.