It's Getting Deep Around Here

"Do you smell something, Colin?" "Yes, Condi, I do..."



I'd look pretty sour if I had to defend the prez about these war lies.

CNN reports that Condi said:

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency approved President Bush's State of the Union speech, which included a statement that Iraq was planning to buy uranium from Africa, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters Friday.

"The CIA cleared the speech. The CIA cleared the speech in its entirety," Rice said, en route to Uganda.
...
"If the CIA -- the director of central intelligence -- had said, 'Take this out of the speech,' it would have been gone," Rice said.

Yet WaPo reports that the CIA requested the evidence be dropped from the British intel report:

The CIA tried unsuccessfully in early September 2002 to persuade the British government to drop from an official intelligence paper a reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa that President Bush included in his State of the Union address four months later, senior Bush administration officials said yesterday.
...
The latest disclosures further illustrate the lack of confidence expressed by the U.S. intelligence community in the months leading up to Bush's speech about allegations of Iraqi efforts to buy uranium in Africa. Even so, Bush used the charge -- citing British intelligence -- in the Jan. 28 address as part of his effort to convince Congress and the American people that Iraq had a program to build weapons of mass destruction and posed a serious threat.

We should start a pool on who is going to take the rap for this. Dollars to doughnuts it won't be Dubya or Dick, at least until November 2004. It still sounds like the intelligence agencies are fighting the good fight. Maybe Condi will fall on her sword? Only thing I know is that this whole situation is getting curiouser and curiouser...

ntodd  ¶ 9:03 AM