The CIA approved in advance U.S. President George W. Bush's accusation in a speech that Iraq had sought to acquire nuclear material from Africa,
US wrangles over Iraq nuclear accusations
ENTEBBE, Uganda (Reuters) - 11 Jul 2003 12:50 BST
The CIA approved in advance U.S. President George W. Bush's accusation in a speech that Iraq had sought to acquire nuclear material from Africa, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says.
Rice said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had approved the State of the Union address before Bush delivered it in January.
The White House acknowledged this week it had been a mistake to insert the claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been trying to get African uranium and that documents alleging a transaction between Iraq and Niger had been forged.
"The CIA cleared the speech in its entirety... If the CIA Director of Central Intelligence, had said 'take this out of the speech', then it would have been done," Rice told reporters flying to Uganda from South Africa on Air Force One with Bush.
Critics have seized on Bush's statement, accusing his administration of a campaign to mislead the public by hyping the threat posed by Iraq to gain support for the war.
U.S. television network CBS reported on Thursday that the White House had ignored a request by the CIA to remove the accusation from Bush's address.
Rice's lengthy session with reporters on the uranium issue reflected an attempt by the White House to defend Bush against criticism that he misled the public.
She said the specific reference to African uranium had been scrutinised by the CIA.
"There was even some discussion on that specific sentence, so that it reflected better what the CIA thought and the speech was cleared," Rice said.
"Some specifics about amount and place were taken out... with the change in that sentence, the speech was cleared."
Rice said the White House "absolutely" had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet, saying he had served "very well".
"The CIA Director George Tenet has been a terrific DCI (Director of Central Intelligence)," Rice said.
"I am really not blaming anybody," she told reporters.
Rice said although Bush's statement about the uranium in the State of the Union speech cited British intelligence, the "underlying intelligence" for the British document was in the official U.S. National Intelligence Estimate.
She said the State Department's intelligence agency had expressed reservations about the African uranium information separately but that the larger intelligence conclusion was that there was reason to believe Iraq was trying to obtain uranium in Africa.
She said no one had expressed any doubts to Bush about the intelligence underlying the National Intelligence Estimate.
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