Bush Claim on Iraq Had Flawed Origin, White House Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/08/international/worldspecial/08PREX.html


Bush Claim on Iraq Had Flawed Origin, White House Says
By DAVID E. SANGER


ASHINGTON, July 7 — The White House acknowledged for the first time today that President Bush was relying on incomplete and perhaps inaccurate information from American intelligence agencies when he declared, in his State of the Union speech, that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase uranium from Africa.

The White House statement appeared to undercut one of the key pieces of evidence that President Bush and his aides had cited to back their claims made prior to launching an attack against Iraq in March that Mr. Hussein was "reconstituting" his nuclear weapons program. Those claims added urgency to the White House case that military action to depose Mr. Hussein needed to be taken quickly, and could not await further inspections of the country or additional resolutions at the United Nations

now what about all those revenge contracts and other talk of payback. I hate this admin. Bastille Day celebrations this weekend. Celebrate!

And so it continues...
No mention of the fact that the resident
should have accurate information before
deploying bombs and troops.
UN-friggin-believable.

BHN

Asked about the accuracy of the president's statement this morning, Mr. Fleischer said, "We see nothing that would dissuade us from the president's broader statement." But when pressed, he said he would clarify the issue later today.

Tonight, after Air Force One had departed, White House officials issued a statement in Mr. Fleischer's name that made clear that they no longer stood behind Mr. Bush's statement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/08/international/worldspecial/08PREX.html

What did the Shrub say this morning? :wtf:

on edit: So they say they no longer stand behind the State of the Union Address. Oh, that's better.

... until they can blame someone else.... Since Ari Fleischer has repeatedly said that he says nothing to the press that hasn't come from Dubya, and Dubya has never admitted a mistake of substance in his life, that certainly means they'll be searching for a fall guy or two.

Nothing yet on the White House website, as far as I can tell

http://www.whitehouse.gov

Posted on the State Dept. website (scroll down).

Thanks to DUer peterh, who found it and posted the link on this thread.

so far, ya treasonous pieces of shit-"BRING IT ON"

"This is an administration that will not talk about how we gather intelligence, how we know what we're going to do, nor what our plans are."
* to press at Camp David, 9-15-2001.

:nuke:

DO they really think we are THAT stupid????
Let's see...
What exactly is the time frame between the
State of the Union Address and the illegal
invasion and destruction of Iraq?

WHO THE FUCK IS DRIVING THE BUS!
AND- HOW DO WE GET OFF?

OH GOD- HELP US ALL.
PLEASE
PLEASE
PLEASE.
This country has officially entered the Twilight Zone.

BHN

Edited for shock and awe tyoing error
Make that two..."typing"

is why aren't they outraged and calling for an investigation into the source of the forged documents?? Why, oh why, won't someone ask the hard questions?

From: http://www.msnbc.com/news/935946.asp

Traq claim in error, U.S. aide says
Attempted uranium purchase was cited by Bush
By Walter Pincus
THE WASHINGTON POST

July 8 — The Bush administration acknowledged for the first time yesterday that President Bush should not have claimed in his State of the Union address in January that Iraq had sought to buy uranium in Africa to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program.

THE STATEMENT was prompted by publication of a British parliamentary commission report that raised serious questions about the reliability of British intelligence that was cited by Bush as part of his effort to convince Congress and the American people that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction program were a threat to U.S. security.

‘BALD CLAIM’

The British panel said it was unclear why the British government asserted as a “bald claim” that there was intelligence that Iraq had sought to buy significant amounts of uranium in Africa. It noted that the CIA had already debunked this intelligence, and questioned why an official British government intelligence dossier published four months before Bush’s speech included the claim as part of an effort to make the case for going to war against Iraq.

(...)

Asked about the British report, the administration released a statement that, after weeks of questioning about the president’s uranium-purchase claim, effectively conceded that intelligence underlying the president’s statement was wrong. “Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq’s attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech,” a senior Bush administration official said last night in a statement authorized by the White House.

This is the second time intelligence flaws have caused a national crisis. Now, we must either admit that our intelligence agencies are about as good as Lichtenstein's, or--could it be--that we have an administration that is so idealogical that it will not accept intelligence that runs counter to their thinking. In that case, we are a nation in peril.

Such an admission calls into further question the credibility of this pResident on what's supposedly his strongest issue.

I, for one, am waiting to see what kind of play this gets on the morning cable news shows. For some reason, I'm not expecting much.

but I will check out the major networks tomorrow, just to see if this makes some waves. You would think it would, it's only the President admitting his SOTU was all a bunch of hooey.

the buck stops anywhere but where it should. If indeed the resident was given "misleading" information, one might think that another source should have been obtained before he marched the country straight into war. Even a hack journalist confirms sources. No, that would have been counterproductive to their overall plan of sqeezing the oil out of Iraq. I'm still waiting for the "grownups" to take charge in Washington. These pitiful two-bit thugs have to get what's coming to them, I only hope the press removes their collective heads from the residents ass long enough to take this story to it's logical conclusion; Bush lied, many people died. Hang the bastard,(metaphorically speaking of course, Mr. Ashcroft).

great way of taking responsibility.... :eyes:

so is AWOL going to blame the CIA? FBI? or Clinton?

impeachment time? :evilgrin: bring it on! :evilgrin:

The implications are endless.

Kicking for the morning DU crew.

Nighty-Night...

BHN