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CIA comes to Bush`s defence
Washington, July 12: In the eye of a storm over US President George W Bush`s allegation that the Saddam Hussein regime had tried to acquire nuclear material from Africa, CIA director George Tenet has taken the blame for wrongly allowing Bush to make the statement even though agency officials doubted the intelligence.
Washington, July 12: In the eye of a storm over US President George W Bush's allegation that the Saddam Hussein regime had tried to acquire nuclear material from Africa, CIA director George Tenet has taken the blame for wrongly allowing Bush to make the statement even though agency officials doubted the intelligence.
"This was a mistake ... these 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President," Tenet said in a statement released yesterday.
The extraordinary statement came hours after Bush, who is on a visit to Africa, said intelligence agencies had cleared his January 28 state of the union address. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice also said that THE cia had vetted the speech in its "entirety".
Media reports on Thursday said some CIA officials had conveyed to the White House, prior to the speech, their misgivings about the allegation that Iraq was trying to procure uranium from Niger. But Rice said that if Tenet had any such misgivings, "he did not make them known."
Tenet acknowledged that he was ultimately responsible for the mistake.
"Let me be clear about several things right up front. First, CIA approved the President's state of the union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my agency. And third, the President had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound," he said.
Bureau Report
"This was a mistake ... these 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President," Tenet said in a statement released yesterday.
The extraordinary statement came hours after Bush, who is on a visit to Africa, said intelligence agencies had cleared his January 28 state of the union address. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice also said that THE cia had vetted the speech in its "entirety".
Media reports on Thursday said some CIA officials had conveyed to the White House, prior to the speech, their misgivings about the allegation that Iraq was trying to procure uranium from Niger. But Rice said that if Tenet had any such misgivings, "he did not make them known."
Tenet acknowledged that he was ultimately responsible for the mistake.
"Let me be clear about several things right up front. First, CIA approved the President's state of the union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my agency. And third, the President had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound," he said.
Bureau Report