NewsMax.com
Monday, July 14, 2003

In the speech, Bush said, “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

Rice argued, “The statement that he made was indeed accurate. The British government did say that. Not only was the statement accurate, there were statements of this kind in the National Intelligence Estimate. And the British themselves stand by that statement to this very day, saying that they had sources other than sources that have now been called into question to back up that claim. We have no reason not to believe them.”

When pressed by Snow, Rice indicated that if the president repeated that statement in yet another speech today “it would still be true,” adding the proviso “but the problem is that we have a higher standard” than just the accuracy of the statement. “We want it to be based for the president on the firmest possible intelligence.”

Rice maintained that the U.S. has reporting that the Iraqis were trying to procure uranium in countries other than Niger, Africa, citing yet other yet-to-be-disclosed British intelligence.

“Have you been privy to those sources and that information?” asked Snow.

Rice responded, “The British have reasons, because of the arrangements that they made, apparently, in receiving those sources, that they cannot share them with us.

Rice agreed that CIA Director George Tenet had removed from a Bush speech in Cincinnati three months before the State of the Union a more specific reference to Iraqi efforts to buy uranium for nuclear weapons. The removal of the reference was prompted after it was discovered that certain underlying documents to support the British uranium report proved to have been forged.

The Cincinnati speech was on October 7th last year and contained a reference to yellow cakes from Niger, Africa.

Rice noted that despite Tenet’s insistence on amending the Cincinnati speech, he continues to stand by the procurement effort that was under way to reconstitute the Iraqi nuclear program. (Tenet on Friday shouldered the blame for not insisting on removing the uranium reference in the State of the Union address.)

'An Issue of Reconstitution'

“This was an issue of reconstitution, of how quickly he might be able to reconstitute a vast infrastructure that was still in place, of the fact that we missed, the last time around, how close he was to a nuclear weapon.

“But the reconstitution case was based on a number of issues: the procurement, the brainpower of the scientists, the efforts to get high-quality components for centrifuges. We have found, for instance, with the scientists that we found, that he was burying pieces of centrifuges in his yard.”

Rice expressed confidence that David Kay, the new U.S. inspector on the ground, would ultimately solve the issue of what happened to Saddam’s cache of weapons of mass destruction. “I believe that we will find the truth, and I believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was also on the offensive Sunday, telling NBC’s "Meet the Press": "Referencing another country’s intelligence, as opposed to your own, probably — according to George Tenet and the president ... it would have been better not to include it."

On ABC’s "This Week," Rumsfeld said that the President’s State of the Union statement was "technically correct" -- because Bush noted the source of the claim was Britain.

Rice in explaining the differing results in the content of the two presidential addresses concluded: “In the State of the Union, we looked at the intelligence. We did say, ‘Do you have anything more?’ They said there was in the NIE, the National Intelligence Estimate, a broader story that had to do with other places in Africa. And so it says, 'The British have said' — which is accurate — 'The British have said that' so forth and so on."

As the administration works to put the issue behind them, the opposition continues to fuel the fires. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, told CNN that there were “enormous questions still about the overall intelligence given to the Congress, the quality of that intelligence and even about the politics that entered into the judgment of taking that famous phrase out of one speech but leaving it in another.”

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

War on Terrorism

Editor's note:
If you love Ronald Reagan – you’ll love NewsMax’s “Reagan Collection” – Check it out – Click Here Now