A key point from today’s WMD commission report:

“The Commission has found no evidence of ‘politicization’ of the Intelligence Community’s assessments concerning Iraq’s reported WMD programs. No analytical judgments were changed in response to political pressure to reach a particular conclusion. The Commission has investigated this issue closely, querying in detail those analysts involved in formulating pre-war judgments about Iraq’s WMD programs.”

In fact, one of the Commission’s recommendations to improve our intelligence capabilities is for senior policymakers to demand more from analysts. The Commission said

“We urge that policymakers actively probe and question analysts. In our view, such interaction is not ‘politicization.’ Analysts should expect such demanding and aggressive testing without – as a matter of principle and professionalism – allowing it to subvert their judgment.”