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Setting up Tenent for the Fall-Guy
Rice: CIA approved Bush remarks on Iraq
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Tom Raum AP WIRE
July 11, 2003 | ENTEBBE, Uganda (AP) -- President Bush's national security adviser said Friday the CIA cleared Bush's State of the Union speech in its entirety, including a sentence alleging that Iraq was seeking to buy nuclear material from Africa.
If CIA Director George Tenet had any misgivings about that sentence in the president's speech, "he did not make them known" to Bush or his staff, said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Her comments to reporters aboard Air Force One came as the administration presented a full-press defense of Bush's use of that allegation against Saddam Hussein, which the White House subsequently acknowledged was based on false information.
"The CIA cleared the speech. The CIA cleared the speech in its entirety," Rice said as Bush flew from South Africa to Uganda. Questions about the allegations in Bush's January speech have followed him on this five-day trip through Africa.
The agency raised only one objection to the sentence involving an allegation that Iraq was trying to obtain yellow cake uranium, she said. "Some specifics about amount and place were taken out," Rice said.
"With the changes in that sentence, the speech was cleared," she said. "The agency did not say they wanted that sentence out."
Rice made the defense of the White House in a rare 50-minute meeting with reporters aboard the president's plane.
The comments come amid published reports that some CIA officials had conveyed to the White House misgivings about the yellow cake allegation prior to Bush's Jan. 28 State of the Union address.
Rice dismissed that notion, noting that the CIA had mentioned such a claim -- that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa -- in a classified National Intelligence Assessment made periodically to the president.
"If the CIA -- the director of central intelligence -- had said take this out of the speech -- it would have been gone," Rice said. "We have a high standard for the president's speeches."
Asked whether Bush had confidence in the intelligence agency, Rice replied, "Absolutely."
When queried on reports the CIA expressed concern to the White House about the allegation, she suggested that Tenet should be asked directly. "I'm not blaming anyone here," Rice said.
"The president did not knowingly say anything that we knew to be false," she said. "We wouldn't put anything knowingly in the speech that was false."
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Tom Raum AP WIRE
July 11, 2003 | ENTEBBE, Uganda (AP) -- President Bush's national security adviser said Friday the CIA cleared Bush's State of the Union speech in its entirety, including a sentence alleging that Iraq was seeking to buy nuclear material from Africa.
If CIA Director George Tenet had any misgivings about that sentence in the president's speech, "he did not make them known" to Bush or his staff, said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Her comments to reporters aboard Air Force One came as the administration presented a full-press defense of Bush's use of that allegation against Saddam Hussein, which the White House subsequently acknowledged was based on false information.
"The CIA cleared the speech. The CIA cleared the speech in its entirety," Rice said as Bush flew from South Africa to Uganda. Questions about the allegations in Bush's January speech have followed him on this five-day trip through Africa.
The agency raised only one objection to the sentence involving an allegation that Iraq was trying to obtain yellow cake uranium, she said. "Some specifics about amount and place were taken out," Rice said.
"With the changes in that sentence, the speech was cleared," she said. "The agency did not say they wanted that sentence out."
Rice made the defense of the White House in a rare 50-minute meeting with reporters aboard the president's plane.
The comments come amid published reports that some CIA officials had conveyed to the White House misgivings about the yellow cake allegation prior to Bush's Jan. 28 State of the Union address.
Rice dismissed that notion, noting that the CIA had mentioned such a claim -- that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa -- in a classified National Intelligence Assessment made periodically to the president.
"If the CIA -- the director of central intelligence -- had said take this out of the speech -- it would have been gone," Rice said. "We have a high standard for the president's speeches."
Asked whether Bush had confidence in the intelligence agency, Rice replied, "Absolutely."
When queried on reports the CIA expressed concern to the White House about the allegation, she suggested that Tenet should be asked directly. "I'm not blaming anyone here," Rice said.
"The president did not knowingly say anything that we knew to be false," she said. "We wouldn't put anything knowingly in the speech that was false."
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