I've been diarying a lot lately about what Bush knew and when he knew it, in regards to uranium claim (none of the diaries have picked up much discussion). It's hard to prove he knew there were doubts about the claim without the investigation of a special prosecutor, but we have a lot to speculate on.
The NYT
reported
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - A high-level intelligence assessment by the Bush administration concluded in early 2002 that the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq was "unlikely" because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles, according to a secret memo that was recently declassified by the State Department.
/snip
The memo, dated March 4, 2002, was distributed at senior levels by the office of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
/snip
A Bush administration official, who requested anonymity because the issue involved partly classified documents, would not say whether President Bush had seen the State Department's memo before his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003.
It's hard to imagine Bush did not see, or at least hear about, a memo distributed by the SEC of Defense at senior levels. Would it be expected of the President to have seen such a memo? or does the blame fall an advisor like Stephen Hadley again..
From the Washington Post
Tenet interceded to keep the claim out of a speech Bush gave in Cincinnati on Oct. 7, 2002, but by Dec. 19 it reappeared in a State Department "fact sheet." After that, the Pentagon asked for an authoritative judgment from the National Intelligence Council, the senior coordinating body for the 15 agencies that then constituted the U.S. intelligence community. Did Iraq and Niger discuss a uranium sale, or not? If they had, the Pentagon would need to reconsider its ties with Niger.
The council's reply, drafted in a January 2003 memo by the national intelligence officer for Africa, was unequivocal: The Niger story was baseless and should be laid to rest. Four U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge said in interviews that the memo, which has not been reported before, arrived at the White House as Bush and his highest-ranking advisers made the uranium story a centerpiece of their case for the rapidly approaching war against Iraq.
How would Bush have not seen or heard about a memo of such high importance?
Here we see Hadley and Rice take blame for not taking the uranium claim out of Bush's speeches. But are they just sucking up and trying to protect their boss when they know they told him there were doubts.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/...
In 2002, the CIA gave a presentation to Bush on Iraq's WMDs. Bush's response?
`Nice try, but that isn't gonna sell Joe Public.
Did Tenet mention they (the CIA) thought the uranium claim was bogus? Is that one of the reasons the case was weak and 'would not sell Joe Public'?
Right in the NIE doubt was cast on the uranium claim, but Bush officials insist he didn't read the NIE so it wasn't his fault.
In any case, shouldn't Bush have checked with the IAEA about the claim before the SOTU, the group responsible for nuclear nonproliferation?
Discuss