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US Intelligence on Iraq is 'Darn Good,' says Bush After CIA Admitted Error
VOA News
14 Jul 2003, 19:11 UTC

U.S. President George W. Bush says he believes the quality of the intelligence reports he receives is "darn good." Mr. Bush was addressing the question of whether Iraq sought uranium from Africa, a now-discredited claim he made in his January State of the Union address.

Speaking at the White House Monday, the president blamed the CIA for approving the mis-information, and said he would not have included it had the CIA raised objections. Mr. Bush said the larger point was that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had a weapons program and that the United States was right to take action against his government. The president again did not mention any imminent threat from actual weapons, the major pre-war justification for military action.

Earlier, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday it is "absolute, total nonsense" to suggest the President misled the public when he said British intelligence knew of an Iraqi-Africa connection. He said the president considers the matter closed and "has moved on."

Reporters asked Mr. Fleischer why the January speech mentioned the now discredited British intelligence, when a similar reference was deleted from an earlier speech. The spokesman said the earlier reference was specific to Niger and a specific amount of materials, whereas the January speech made a broad reference to Africa. Mr. Fleischer later argued that nobody can say the Africa reference was wrong. He also contended that it did not matter whether Iraq sought uranium from Africa, because, he argued, Baghdad was trying to rebuild its nuclear program.

For his part, British Prime Minister Tony Blair Monday again defended his nation's pre-war intelligence, adding Britain "should be proud as a country" of what it has done.

Several leading Democrats have not accepted the Bush administration's explanation. The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin, is calling for an investigation into all the intelligence the White House used in deciding to go to war in Iraq.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says the credibility of U.S. intelligence services is now at stake and people may now doubt the administration if it has information about North Korea or Iran.