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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (425605)	7/11/2003 11:10:44 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 769670

9/11 Commission: Clinton Likely to Be Grilled on bin Laden Blunder Friday, July 11, 2003; 1:19 a.m. EDT If he's called to testify before the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks, ex-President Bill Clinton will likely be questioned about his admission that he decided to turn down an offer for Osama bin Laden's extradition to the U.S. "If the decision is made to call him, then obviously our staff will research what they are going to ask him," commission spokesman Al Felzenberg told NewsMax.com on Thursday. "And since this is obviously on the public record, I wouldn't be surprised if it came up." On Wednesday NewsMax.com supplied the 9/11 commission with a transcript of Clinton's admission that he let bin Laden off the hook: "We'd been hearing that the Sudanese wanted America to start meeting with them again," Clinton told the Long Island Association on Feb. 15, 2002. "They released [bin Laden]. At the time, 1996, he had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America." The 9/11 commission was also supplied with an audio link where NewsMax.com's exclusive recording of the ex-president's comments could be accessed. Felzenberg said the decision to call Clinton, as well as any determination on what questions to ask him, was still months away. But referring to the question of whether the bin Laden blunder was likely to be on the agenda, he said, "The answer is, yeah, but not yet." The 9/11 commission is also seeking what Felzenberg described as "a multitude of documents" from the Clinton Library. "Material that has gone to the Clinton Library has been requested" from the National Archives, which has jurisdiction over the records, he said.

To: Skywatcher who wrote (425605)	7/11/2003 11:32:55 AM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

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. news.ft.com