May 26, 2004

Today the Commission met in its offices in Arlington, Virginia for a full day of briefings concerning Iraq's WMD programs prior and subsequent to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Among these briefings were presentations from current and former officials from the Iraq Survey Group - including David Kay - and from representatives of the National Intelligence Council.

While our first meeting is focusing primarily on Iraq, the Commission's mandate is considerably broader. We have been asked to evaluate comprehensively the quality of U.S. intelligence on WMD and related 21st Century threats - whether from state actors or transnational terrorist networks - and to provide specific recommendations for ensuring that the Intelligence Community is prepared to identify and warn the United States Government about such threats in the future. The Commission has already had productive visits with several agencies within the Intelligence Community, and has begun collecting and reviewing intelligence materials. The Commission will also be examining closely the reports due to be released soon by the House and Senate Select Intelligence Committees and the National Commission on the Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Due to the sensitive nature of our work, which concerns highly classified matters of national security, these meetings are not open to the public. We nonetheless intend to keep the public informed of our work, and as we progress we welcome public input and comment. Toward this end, the Commission has solicited working papers from a broad array of independent experts and research institutions, and will launch a website containing public information about the Commission (http://www.wmd.gov) by the end of this week.

Commission Co-Chairs: