When President George W. Bush appointed a commission to investigate how the U.S. intelligence agencies incorrectly concluded Saddam Hussein's Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the panel was not permitted to address how that faulty information was used by the White House in deciding to go to war. Even though the report provided a great deal of information regarding systematic failures, critics charged there are still questions surrounding how Bush and his national security team used the information. "The president's commission report is notable for the ground it covers and the ground it does not," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, an opposition Democrat. "I believe it is essential that we hold both the intelligence agencies and senior policymakers accountable for their actions," Reid added. Some of Bush's harshest critics argued the intelligence was distorted to gain political and public support for the war. The report, however, said there was no evidence that agency analysts came under pressure to tailor their findings to support Bush's view or that they manipulated it on their own. --More 2131 Local Time 1831 GMT
