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Thursday, July 10, 2003

CBS exclusive:

On the CBS Evening News, there was this story, which was identified as a CBS exclusive: (excerpts)
Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False

Senior administration officials tell CBS News the President’s mistaken claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa was included in his State of the Union address -- despite objections from the CIA.

CIA officials warned members of the President’s National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa.

The White House officials responded that a paper issued by the British government contained the unequivocal assertion: “Iraq has ... sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” As long as the statement was attributed to British Intelligence, the White House officials argued, it would be factually accurate. The CIA officials dropped their objections and that’s how it was delivered.
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” Mr. Bush said.
The statement was technically correct, since it accurately reflected the British paper. But the bottom line is the White House knowingly included in a presidential address information its own CIA had explicitly warned might not be true.
Could be big, but only time will tell. At a minimum, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has some 'splainin' to do

UPDATE: This item has caught the attention of Atrios, DailyKOS, Calpundit, Drudge's front page, Busy, Busy, Busy, the History News Network guy, and Josh Marshall's TPM, just to name a few.

ADDENDUM: A further complication to the story, from the Washington Post:
CIA wanted British to drop uranium reference

In September 2002, the CIA tried unsuccessfully to persuade the British government to drop from an official intelligence paper a reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa that President Bush included in his State of the Union address four months later, senior administration officials said Thursday.

The British government rejected the suggestion, saying it had separate intelligence that had not been made available to the United States.
So, the CIA told the British that their information on African yellowcake was bad. Similar intelligence the U.S. had (essentially derived from the Brits) didn't check out either. But Bush went ahead and used British info which, strictly speaking, hadn't been vetted by the CIA for the White House.

The responsibility keeps ping-ponging around. From the White House to the CIA to MI6 to Joe Wilson IV to the Office of the Vice President to the NSA to the speechwriters to "senior officials" to Italian intelligence to the Pentagon to Ahmed Chalabi to the INC to who knows ...

Very confusing.


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