WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush was scheduled to be briefed on Tuesday on the report on U.S. intelligence capabilities related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), then meet with the bipartisan commission that prepared the report on Thursday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"We will carefully consider the recommendations and act quickly on the recommendations as well," McClellan said during a White House briefing. "They build upon the steps we have already taken to improve our intelligence-sharing and gathering." Bush appointed the bipartisan commission in the wake of the failure of U.S. forces to locate WMD in Iraq, which was the primary reason Bush and other senior administration officials gave as the reason for the decision by the United States to invade Iraq two years ago.
Bush will meet with the commission at the White House on Thursday morning, then eet with Cabinet members who would be affected by the recommendations of the commission, McClellan said.
After that, "we will have a press event where the president will participate with the (commission) co-chairs," who also will answer questions from the press, McClellan said.
The commission conducted hundreds of interviews and looked through thousands of documents, he added.
"This was a very comprehensive look at our intelligence capability and our intelligence relating to weapons of mass destruction," McClellan said.