Why does Director of CIA have to screen SOTU speeches?

[kentuck]

Is this a Standard Operating Procedure? It gives the impression that the Director is more powerful than the pResident? I can understand that they don't want any national security secrets inadvertently talked about in the SOTU, but I would be curious to know whether this happens with every SOTU speech?

But the bigger question in my mind is why does the leader of the free world need the CIA to tell him something is a "lie" when he should already know it is a lie because he has already been told it is a lie. Did he deliberately choose to ignore the fact about the issue and used it anyway because it helped bolster his obsession with going after Saddam? If the latter is true, it is a very, very serious matter.

[LisaM]

1. That is such an interesting point

I was thinking something along the same lines this morning, though I didn't articulate it as well as you did.

It really does seem strange. Doesn't the White House have fact checkers who can check everything out? Does the White House tend to put things in speeches that are so over the top they need to be looked at by the intelligence agencies?

[Old and In the Way]

3. Fact checkers?

We are talking about the Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld administration here. They never let facts get in the way of whatever their plans are for the world.

Remember, Bush thinks life would be a lot easier if he was a dictator. He sometimes forgets that he was selected pResident, not dictator for life.

[Homer12]

2. Ultimate Acountability

Is in the executive branch, which carries out and oversees the use of the military.