|
As long as the primary business of Bush2 is Big Business,
we are going to have more Suspension of
Belief like this: Bush
Confident in CIA Despite Iraq Uranium Charge 2003-07-12
, By Randall Mikkelsen ABUJA (Reuters)
- President Bush said
on Saturday he had confidence in CIA Director George Tenet and considered a
controversy about false U.S. claims that Iraq tried to buy African uranium to be closed. Tenet, appointed as head of the Central Intelligence Agency
by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, took responsibility on Friday for the
false claim by Bush over Iraq's nuclear ambitions, which raised embarrassing
questions about the way he made the case for war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "I've got confidence in George Tenet. I've got
confidence in the men and women who work at the CIA and I...look forward to
working with them as we win this war on terror," Bush said in Abuja on the
last leg of a five-day five-nation African tour. Asked
if he considered the controversy that dogged his African tour over, he said:
"I do." Bush, seeking to win backing for the invasion of Iraq that
U.S.-led forces launched in March, cited the uranium deal in his State of the
Union address in January, calling it evidence that Saddam was trying to develop
nuclear weapons. The White House
acknowledged this week the accusation should not have been in the speech
because documents it was based on proved to be forged. Tenet Takes Responsibility Tenet issued a statement on Friday evening in Washington,
saying: "The president had every reason to believe that the text presented
to him was sound." He said the reference to an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium
from Niger, quoting British intelligence, "should never have been included
in the text." "I am responsible for the approval process in my
agency," Tenet said in the statement marking the latest twist in the
controversy embroiling both the U.S. and British governments. In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defended Britain's
assertion that Iraq had tried to buy African uranium saying the claim was based
on "reliable intelligence" not shared with the United States. Straw confirmed that the CIA had expressed reservations to
Britain about the claim, contained in a September British dossier on Iraq, but
said "a judgment" was made to retain it. Bush is to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in
Washington next week, for the first time since the controversy erupted. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the decision to put
out the Tenet statement was made by the White House and the CIA after days of
discussions. "The discussion
was, the CIA needs to explain what it's role was in this," he said. He
said Bush had moved on and "I think frankly that much of the country has
moved on as well." Fleischer dismissed
the controversy
over the statement as
"a flap"
that missed the larger
issue of alleged
Iraqi attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear
weapons. He said Bush was pleased
that Tenet acknowledged the circumstances surrounding the State of the Union
speech. "The president said that line because it was based on
information from the intelligence community and the speech was vetted," he
told reporters. "The president sees this as much ado that is beside the
point." He also said a former U.S. ambassador, Joseph Wilson, has
reported that he had been contacted by a "businessman" in 1999 to
discuss what he believed to be an Iraq-Niger uranium deal. Wilson, in a New York Times opinion article, said this month
he had probed a report alleging Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Niger and
concluded that the Bush administration had "twisted some of the
intelligence" to justify the war. Thanks
for reminding us Ari, where are those WMD? And Wilson fingered VP Cheney. Meanwhile,
Corporate America is lining up to work with Bechtel and Halliburton. Pax
Americana. When is Enough Enough? - KWC Senators
Call for Disclosure on Iraq Contracts PORTLAND, OR (2003-07-11) (OPB
Radio) - Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are calling for
immediate public disclosure of construction contracts awarded to U.S. companies
to rebuild Iraq. The contracts did not go through competitive bids and are
worth billions of dollars. Senator Wyden has sponsored
a bill that's awaiting final approval in a conference committee. It would require a public explanation for federal contracts that
aren't bid on. |
