Posted on 07/14/2003 11:43:32 AM PDT by RepPhil
Sunday July 13, 2003; 10:53 a.m. EDT Rumsfeld Blasts Media Distortion on Iraq Nuke Flap Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld blasted the American press on Sunday for erroneously reporting that President Bush had cited "false" information when he referred to British intelligence on the Iraqi nuclear program in his State of the Union address.
In the first comments by a high ranking Bush administration official challenging the blatant media distortion, Rumsfeld praised the British intelligence service as one of the finest in the world, contending its finding that Iraq sought uranium from Niger was not necessarily inaccurate or untrue. Asked about an ABC News poll that showing that 50 percent of Americans now believe that Bush intentionally exaggerated the Iraqi nuclear threat, Rumsfeld told ABC's "This Week," "That's factually not true." "If the press keeps saying that it was exaggerated and if people want to argue that, then a long enough debate over that issue will persuade a number of people that maybe it was," Rumsfeld told "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. Because U.S. intelligence had been unable to independently confirm the British reports, Rumsfeld said it was a mistake to include a reference to them in the president's address. But he added pointedly, "not that they were inaccurate, not that they even may not be true."
The defense chief launched into a vigorous defense of British intelligence, saying, "They do a wonderful job. We have a very close relationship with the U.K. Of all the intelligence services in the world, I think that one has to say they've done, over the years, a very, very good job." The firestorm over Bush's comments commenced on Tuesday, after the Washington Post mischaracterized a statement by an unnamed White House official who said that Bush's Niger uranium reference "should not have been included in the State of the Union speech." The Post erroneously claimed that the White House had "effectively conceded that intelligence underlying the president's statement was wrong." In fact, as both Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice made clear on Sunday, the Bush administration had conceded no such thing. Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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Absolutely right.
"The defense chief launched into a vigorous defense of British intelligence, saying, "They do a wonderful job."
I never heard that from the media. That's the first time I heard that they praised the Brits for their intelligence (spy intelligence, that is.)
Democrats' comments may come back to haunt them http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/benedetto/2003-07-13-benedetto_x.htm
What's wrong with word LIE? I'm sick of the PC namby-pamby responses by the right. Just tell it like it is. IT'S A LIE!
FMCDH
FMCDH
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