WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - The commission that President Bush appointed last February to assess the state of American intelligence on weapons proliferation has been deliberating entirely in secret and may not depart from that practice before it issues a final report next March, officials of the panel say.
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In the presidential campaign, Mr. Bush described the proliferation of illicit weapons as the most urgent problem facing the country. But it was only under political pressure last February that he agreed to create the proliferation panel. Earlier, he opposed such a commission, apparently out of concern that it would focus too much attention on intelligence failures related to Iraq.
Among those questioned by the panel in classified closed-door meetings, according to the Web site, have been Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director; George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence; Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy; and David A. Kay, the former top American weapons inspector in Iraq. The Web site also describes meetings dedicated to briefings on human intelligence, communications intercepts, and analysis, including briefings from the C.I.A., the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
In creating the commission, Mr. Bush set a March 31, 2005, deadline for it to report back to him. In the past two weeks, he assigned other tasks to the panel, including reviewing plans that he has ordered from the C.I.A., the F.B.I., and the Defense Department detailing how they intend to expand and improve their intelligence operations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/06/international/06wmd.html
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