Washington, July 23: Close on the heels of CIA chief George Tenet apologising for allowing a tainted intelligence on Iraq's nuclear programme appear in George W Bush's State of the Union address, Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley has taken responsibility for the slip. Hadley told reporters yesterday that "he is to blame, not Tenet."
Hadley said he had received two memos from the CIA and a phone call from George Tenet last October raising objections to an allegation that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa for building nuclear weapons.
Following this, Hadley said the "offending passage" was deleted from President's speech on Iraq at Cincinnati in October. However, the same details had "slipped" his attention while putting together details of Bush's address before the Congress in January.
"The high standards the President set were not met... the controversial passage citing a British intelligence report should have been taken out of the State of the Union," Hadley said.
Hadley reportedly offered to resign and Bush promptly rejected the offer, explaining that he has confidence in both Hadley and Tenet.

Bureau Report