Bush was told not to use Niger uranium claim on Iraq in SOTU speech by CIA

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, perhaps I can provide a little bit of insight, Wolf.

We've learned from sources in the last day or so, that there were earlier drafts of the president's State of the Union message that were circulated, or this part of the draft, in which American intelligence was credited with having information about these attempts to buy uranium in Niger.

I understand from sources that U.S. intelligence officials went back to the administration and said, "No, we don't -- we don't think we can support that information, you probably shouldn't say that." And apparently, a decision was subsequently made to leave the assertion in the speech anyway, but attribute it to the British white paper, which of course had already publicly made the claim.

Now CIA officials are declining all comment on this, but I'm confident that the sources I've spoken to are speaking accurately about that matter.

One other piece of insight. The CIA did send a report widely through the White House, State Department, Pentagon and elsewhere in March of 2002 -- this was ten months before the State of the Union message -- in which it summarized the findings what we now know was former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who the CIA had asked to make a trip to Niger -- he was a former ambassador there -- and look into it.

And he reported back that this was just not credible in his view. It was dubious, that he'd talked to Nigerian officials, they denied it and in any case uranium mines in Niger were basically controlled by a French company and other foreign entities, so that this was probably a bogus story.

Now, the report did not go to high-level people in the White House, it was not flagged to them. It was never in the briefing the president was given. But it was there ten months in the White House 10 months before the speech was given.

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