Posted on 07/11/2003 3:17:18 PM PDT by Dog
Breaking on Fox..
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet despite his agency's failure to warn Bush against making allegations about Iraq's nuclear weapons program later found false.
"Yes I do, absolutely," Bush said. "I've got confidence in George Tenet. I've got confidence in the men and women who work at the CIA and I look forward to working with them as we win this war on terror."
The president spoke in Abuja, Nigeria, at the end of a five-country trip through Africa.
Bush asserted in his State of the Union address in January that Iraq had sought nuclear materials from Africa. Nearly six months later, the White House acknowledged the charge was false, and the tempest that followed has shadowed Bush on his five-country trip through Africa.
Bush considers the matter closed, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. "The president has moved on," he said.
In a carefully scripted mea culpa, the White House on Friday blamed the CIA for its January misstep, with Bush saying the CIA had reviewed his address and did not raise any alarms. Tenet finished the job hours later with a dramatic statement accepting responsibility.
The statement on Iraq seeking nuclear material "did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches, and CIA should have ensured that it was removed," Tenet said.
"It was a mistake," he added.
The one-two punch was designed to quell a growing political storm, fueled in part by members of Congress and Democratic presidential hopefuls, that challenged the credibility of the administration's arguments that Iraq was trying to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program before the U.S. invasion in March.
Administration officials said that despite the miscue they did not expect Tenet to resign. He is the lone holdover from the Clinton administration and, while distrusted by some conservatives, has enjoyed Bush's confidence.
"I've heard no discussion along those lines," CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said Friday night.
Tenet acknowledged Friday that the CIA had tried unsuccessfully for months to substantiate the British allegation on which the claim was based and that State Department intelligence analysts believed the intelligence was "highly dubious." Yet neither stopped Bush from making the claim in a single sentence of his annual address to the nation.
"These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president," Tenet conceded in a statement.
"First, CIA approved the president's State of the Union address before it was delivered," he said. "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."
The director took his cue from Bush and Rice, who hours earlier blamed the error on the CIA.
"I gave a speech to the nation that was cleared by the intelligence services," Bush told reporters in Uganda. If the CIA director had concerns about the information, "these doubts were not communicated to the president," Rice added.
Key members of Congress called for someone to be held accountable.
"The director of central intelligence is the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters. He should have told the president. He failed. He failed to do so," said Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan.
Tenet sought to answer what he called "legitimate questions" about the CIA's conduct.
He said CIA officials, after reviewing portions of the draft speech, raised some concerns with White House national security aides that prompted changes in the speech's language. But he said the CIA failed to prevent the remark from being uttered despite doubts about its validity.
CIA officials recognized at the beginning that the allegation was based on "fragmentary intelligence" gathered in late 2001 and early 2002, the director said.
But, he said: "From what we know now, agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa."
A former diplomat was sent by the CIA to the region to check on the allegations. He reported back that a Nigerian official he met said he was unaware of any contract signed during his tenure "between Niger and rogue states" for the sale of uranium, Tenet said.
But the former official also described a businessman approaching him in 1999, insisting on a meeting with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Iraq and Niger, Tenet said.
"The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales," Tenet said.
The diplomat has alleged that he believed Vice President Dick Cheney's office was apprised of the findings of his trip. But Tenet said the CIA did not brief the president, vice president or other senior administration officials.
British officials in fall 2002 discussed making the Niger information public. The CIA then expressed their reservations to the British about the quality of the intelligence, Tenet said.
A CIA report last October mentioned the allegations but did not give them full credence, stating "we cannot confirm whether Iraq succeeded in acquiring uranium ore."
Because of the doubts, Tenet said he never included the allegations in his own congressional testimonies or public statements.
"Tenet Takes Responsibility for False Iraq Intelligence CIA Director Admits Analysts Had Doubts About Information
By John Solomon
Associated Press Writer
Friday, July 11, 2003; 6:53 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director George Tenet acknowledged Friday his agency wrongly allowed President Bush to tell the American people that Iraq was seeking nuclear material from Africa when analysts had doubts about the quality of the intelligence.
"These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president," Tenet said in a statement released after Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, blamed the miscue on the CIA and members of Congress called for someone to be held accountable. "This was a mistake," the director's statement said.
Tenet said the responsibility for vetting the allegations included in Bush's State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to get uranium from Africa beloing to the CIA and ultimately with himself.
"Let me be clear about several things right up front," he said. "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."
Tenet said CIA officials reviewed portions of the draft speech and raised some concerns with national security aides at the White House that prompted changes in language concerning allegations that Iraq sought to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger. But he said the CIA officials failed to stop the remark from being uttered despite the doubts about its validity.
"Officials who were reviewing the draft remarks on uranium raised several concerns about the fragmentary nature of the intelligence with National Security Council colleagues," Tenet said. "Some of the language was changed. From what we know now, agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa."
"This should not have been the test for clearing a presidential address," the statement continued. "This did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches, and CIA should have ensured that it was removed."
Tenet's two-page statement came at the end of a tumultous 24 hours in which reports surfaced suggesting the CIA had raised concerns about the nature of the African allegations before the president made his speech.
That prompted Bush and his Rice to take issue. On a trip in Africa, they said Tenet's agency approved the language in the speech and never raised objections to them.
Members of Congress called on the CIA to be held accountable. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said Tenet was ultimately responsible for the mistake.
"The director of central intelligence is the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters," Roberts said. "He should have told the president. He failed. He failed to do so," Roberts said.
Tenet said there were "legitimate questions" about the CIA's conduct and he sought in his statement explain his agency's role in the matter.
Although the CIA did not learn until well after the president's speech in January that some documents obtained by British intelligence that formed the basis of the Iraq-Niger uranium allegations were forged, CIA officials recognized at the beginning that the allegation was based on "fragmentary intelligence gathered in late 2001 and early 2002," the director said.
A former diplomat was sent by the CIA to the region to check on the allegations and reported back that one of the Nigerian officials he met "stated that he was unaware of any contract being signed between Niger and rogue states for the sale of uranium during his tenure in office," Tenet said.
"The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss 'expanding commercial relations' between Iraq and Niger. The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales," Tenet said.
The diplomat sent to the region has alleged he believed Vice President Dick Cheney's office was apprised of the findings of his trip. But Tenet stated that the CIA "did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials."
Tenet said when British officials in fall 2002 discussed making the Niger information public, his agency expressed their reservations to the British about the quality of the intelligence.
A CIA report that came out in October 2002 mentioned the allegations but did not give them full credence, stating "we cannot confirm whether Iraq succeeded in acquiring uranium ore." In addition, the report noted that State Department intelligence analysts found the allegations "highly dubious."
Because of the doubts, Tenet said he never included the allegations in his own congressional tetsimonies or public statements about Iraqi efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction."
Demo Senator Jay Rockefeller is head demo on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was all over television last week, claiming VP Cheney sent Wilson (the former diplomat), to Africa to check up on the Niger-uranium sale to Iraq. Even when David Gergen tried to tell him it was the CIA, not the VP who sent Wilson, Rockefeller would not bend. Look for him to continue his assault on Bush, via VP Cheney.
Basically, the democrats are saying President Bush intentionally deceived the American people so that he could start a war, and American soldiers are dead because of that deception. That's it in a nutshell. But don't worry! The American people not only won't buy into that, they will hate the democrats for going this far to regain power. And as democrats drag this thing out with hearings and more accusations, (which the left leaning media pumps up), people are going to turn against democrats even more.
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