BBC: Aide takes blame for uranium claim (update on CNN story)

[tinnypriv]

Aide takes blame for uranium claim
BBC News, July 22 20003

A senior US national security advisor has said it was his fault that allegations about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were not removed from a speech by the US president.

Stephen Hadley, America's deputy national security advisor who reports to Condoleezza Rice, said he should have deleted a reference to claims that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa from George W Bush's State of the Union speech in January.

...

Mr Hadley said the Central Intelligence Agency director, George Tenet, had warned him that the intelligence was suspect, and had earlier asked him to remove similar language from an October speech by the president, Reuters news agency reported.

"The high standards the president set were not met," Mr Hadley said.

"It is now clear to me that I failed in that responsibility."

He said he had apologised to the US president.

...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3088597.stm

[1monster]

1. Yeah, yeah! It was the cleaning lady's fault because she put the

discarded speech that missed the trash can on the desk thinking it fell on the floor by accident.

The next day, GW* picked up that copy of the speech instead of the newer copy without the Niger reference.

Or it was somebody else. Heck! The fault lies with everybody. Everybody except Bush of course. :eyes:

[cthrumatrix]

2. too bad....you and your spin machine of lies can NEVER be trusted

We will never get the truth...and they will never be trusted.

[beanball]

3. "The buck stops here" Harry Truman

"One of my aids goofed"George W.Bush, what a crock,another clown falls on the sword for our worthless leader.

[davidinalameda]

4. so when is the execution and will it be broadcast?

I'm waiting to see this guy's head roll down the front lawn of the White House.

[tinnypriv]

5. UPDATE:

Mr Hadley said the CIA objections to including the allegations in Mr Bush's October speech came in the form of two memos sent to him and presidential speechwriter Michael Gerson and at least one telephone conversation with Mr Tenet.

One memorandum said the CIA had "reservations" about the British reporting of the uranium claims, the Associated Press news agency reported.

As a result of the contact the references were removed from this speech.

However, Mr Hadley said he failed to recall these memoranda - which Mr Gerson is said to have found over the weekend - and phone calls when it came to Mr Bush's later State of the Union address.

...

Comment: So he SPOKE to Tenet, who told him to back off in October, yet he FORGOT about that phone call when it came to the most important political speech of the YEAR?????????

Words fail me. Nobody is going to buy this bullshit, shurely? :crazy:

[Barrett808]

7. Hey, he's just following Steve Martin's advice from about 1977

"I forgot it's illegal to... <insert crime here>"

[Barrett808]

8. Weird, the "I forgot" statements don't appear in the current copy

Did you get that from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3088597.stm ?

[tinnypriv]

9. Yeah

Try hitting F5 or refresh :)

[Barrett808]

10. Still don't see that

It's so juicy, I'd love to see it posted at BBC...

[ferg]

6. Who put the lies in?

This is so much bullshit.

Another patsy trying to "take responsibility" because of failing to take the Bush lies out. It's not as if those 16 words appears spontaneously.

Who insisted on the lie in the first place?

(Granted, it's pretty obvious that it was either Bush, or possibly Cheney or Rice who insisted on the lies.)

[casual_observer]

11. It never occured to chimpy that the claim was baseless?

I may not be the leader of the "free world" or anything, BUT if I was going to make a claim like that, at a speech like that, I might stop & ask myself and others a question or two, like "jeezz, is that so?, I mean ... did they really???" I would really want to be convinced, especially if I was presented with a claim like this out of the blue.

I believe that he is too stupid to know better or make a rational judgment. His first reaction is to lie, it is an involuntary reaction for him. For example, the other day when he said that the weapons inspectors weren't allowed to enter Iraq. This was clearly a lie, told by a confused and paranoid specimen.

[JackSwift]

12. So Bush is not the great delegator

that he supporters claimed he was. Actually, the message I am getting from the White House is that they basically all knew it was untrue, but they didn't care and are offended that anyone would question their warmongering on behalf of Halliburton and Bechtel. These people don't care whether they do their jobs carefully or not. If they did, 9/11 wouldn't have happened, and Iraq wouldn't have happened. But since they get to pose really macho-like, they prefer that both did happen.

[zigmanzeta7]

13. Is "Oops my bad" really gonna be enough here? Seriously?

:shrug:

With Hadleys new appology it seems the old rule, "Ignorance of the Law is no excuse" is being re-adjusted. Apparently ignorance of the law is still no excuse but, plenty of just plain ignorance with a dash of extremely well timed forgetfullness is a good excuse. Or, at least they want us to believe it's acceptable, anyway. With the administration explaining the aggressive invasion and takeover of another country as an, "oops, my bad" incident, do Republicans really think we are improving our position in the world. What's next? An offensive nuclear attack on North Korea, vaporizing millions and millions of innocent people due to a FAUX PAS?

I just don't feel the rest of the world will let the Bush administration get away with an, "oops, my bad" here. Even the French aren't that passive, or gullible either, at times. Someone, or a group of people need to take responsibility, and the lumps, for this gross error. As the only super power left we need to police ourselves at least a little better than the AMA. All though it's hard to say it at any time; For this honor, I think Bush is the right man.

[e-mail]

[farmbo]

14. " Some GS 12 made me do it!", says our 'stand up' President.

Me, Condi and Karl didn't want to put it in but an Asst. Special Agent for Central African Affairs II bullied us into putting it in!

Honest! :smoke:

[maryallen]

16. EVERYBODY -- but Bush -- is guilty.

Tenet.

Joseph.

Hadley.

Nobody resigns.
Nobody is fired.
And Dubya just keeps right on trucking.

[realFedUp]

15. This is so much nonsense...

We know who to blame....Clinton's dick again.

[are_we_united_yet]

17. BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSHITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!