The Daily Background

My buddy Jason Leopold of Truthout got George Tenet’s new book “At The Center of The Storm” over the weekend and reports on Tenet’s side of the 16 words/yellocake/Niger story:

George Tenet told former Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in October 2002 that allegations about Iraq’s attempt to acquire yellowcake uranium from Niger should immediately be removed from a speech President Bush was to give in Cincinnati. Tenet told Hadley that the intelligence was unreliable.

“Steve, take it out,” the ex-CIA director writes in a new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” about a conversation he had with Hadley on October 5, 2002, about the 16 words that alleged Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Niger. As deputy National Security Adviser, Hadley was also in charge of the clearance process for speeches given by White House officials. “The facts, I told him, were too much in doubt.”

Back in July 2003, Tenet accepted responsibility for the 16 words in President Bush’s January State of The Union Address which alleged Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium from Niger in order to build a nuclear bomb– an allegation that American officials new was fraudulent at the time.

According to Tenet, he also sent a “follow up letter” to then Hadley assistant Condeondoleezza Rice. In that letter, Tenet wrote his reasons for not trusting the uranium allegations:

“More on why we recommend removing the sentence about [Saddam’s] procuring uranium oxide from Africa,” Tenet wrote in the book, apparently quoting from a memo sent to the White House. “Three points: (1) The evidence is weak. One of the two mines cited by the source as the location of the uranium oxide is flooded. The other mine cited by the source is under the control of French authorities; (2) the procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq’s nuclear ambitions…And (3) we have shared points one and two with Congress, telling them the Africa story is overblown and telling them this was one of two issues where we differed with the British.”

Rice discounted Tenet’s version of events on CBS’ Face The Nation, Sunday, but did not directly address the “16 words” matter. Tenet’s book is on sale starting Monday, April 30th.

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