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--------- Begin forwarded message ---------- From: portsideMod@netscape.net To: portside@yahoogroups.com Subject: Bush Knew Iraq Info was False CBS News Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 19:00:32 -0400 Message-ID: <2E553056.54C24288.5170BEA2@netscape.net> http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071203A.shtml Truthout Editor's Note | On Thursday, CBSNews.com ran an article entitled 'Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False.' By Friday afternoon, both the headline and the content of the article had changed several times. Below is the original content of the first CBS article. A 'screen-grab' of that first CBS article can be seen here. Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False CBS News Thursday 10 July 2003 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. Before the speech was delivered, the portions dealing with Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were checked with the CIA for accuracy, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin. 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. Today at a press conference during the President's trip to Africa, Secretary of State Colin Powell portrayed it as an honest mistake. "There was no effort or attempt on the part of the president or anyone else in the administration to mislead or to deceive the American people," said Powell. But eight days after the State of the Union, when Powell addressed the U.N., he deliberately left out any reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa. "I didn't use the uranium at that point because I didn't think that was sufficiently strong as evidence to present before the world," Powell said. That is exactly what CIA officials told the White House before the State of the Union. The top CIA official, Director George Tenet, was not involved in those discussions and apparently never warned the President he was on thin ice. Secretary Powell said today he read the State of the Union speech before it was delivered and understood it had been seen and cleared by the intelligence community. But intelligence officials say the director of the CIA never saw the final draft. © Copyright 2003 by TruthOut.org To see copy of orginal CBS story go to: http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071203A.shtml [...] Web address : <http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/portside> Digest mode : visit Web site --------- End forwarded message ---------- ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk