Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Giordano Bruno who wrote (251595)	7/23/2003 7:10:07 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 436258

CIA Memos on Uranium Fell Through the Cracks By JEANNE CUMMINGS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- The White House extended blame to National Security Council officials for President Bush's recounting of dubious prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons, saying for the first time that the NSC had been warned the information was unreliable before it was inserted into the State of the Union address. In a bid to avert a crisis over the matter, Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said the Central Intelligence Agency sent two memos to the NSC in October that raised doubts about British reports that Iraq attempted to buy uranium in Africa to restart its nuclear-weapons program. Until now, the White House had let the CIA shoulder full blame for allowing the sentence in question into the president's speech. But Mr. Hadley said he and others forgot about those warnings in January when Mr. Bush's speech was drafted, and that lapse contributed to the inclusion of the uranium charge. Mr. Hadley, who received both October memos, said he still doesn't remember seeing them, although he is certain he received and read them. It was his job to vet the foreign-policy section of the presidential address, he said, and "I failed in that responsibility." He added that his boss, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, also has taken responsibility for the error. Ms. Rice was unavailable for comment Tuesday. But earlier this month, she said that "if the CIA, the Director of Central Intelligence, had said, 'Take this out of the speech' it would have been gone, without question." The CIA did clear the sentence after the NSC said it would attribute it to British, not U.S. intelligence, a revision Ms. Rice later said made it "technically" accurate. Mr. Bush recently defended his speech by repeatedly asserting that the CIA had cleared it. CIA Director George Tenet recently issued a statement saying he was responsible for the mistake, since his agency cleared the disputed sentence. White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the president retains confidence in Messrs. Hadley and Tenet. But the revelations likely will fuel Democratic calls for an independent investigation and give new life to a controversy the administration had hoped was behind it. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate, called on Mr. Bush to "take responsibility for using flawed intelligence." The latest information surfaced Friday, when chief speech writer Michael Gerson discovered a CIA memo dated Oct. 5 addressed to him and Mr. Hadley raising issues with several parts of an earlier speech and doubts about the British intelligence. The classified memo was more than three pages and single-spaced, Mr. Hadley said. Mr. Hadley said the sentence was removed from the earlier speech due to that memo and a telephone call from Mr. Tenet also urging the sentence be struck. Even so, the CIA sent a second memo the next day addressed to Mr. Hadley and Ms. Rice that again challenged the African uranium sale. It said the evidence was weak, and that such a move wasn't critical to Iraq's attempts to reconstitute its nuclear program. Write to Jeanne Cummings at jeanne.cummings@wsj.com Updated July 23, 2003