In the eye of a storm over United States President George W Bush's allegation that the Saddam Hussein regime had tried to acquire nuclear material from Africa, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet has taken the blame for wrongly allowing Bush to make the statement even though agency officials doubted the intelligence.
"This was a mistake ... these 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president," Tenet said in a statement released on Friday.
The extraordinary statement came hours after Bush, who is on a visit to Africa, said intelligence agencies had cleared his January 28 State of the Union address. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice also said that the CIA had whetted the speech in its 'entirety'.
Media reports on Thursday said some CIA officials had conveyed to the White House, prior to the speech, their misgivings about the allegation that Iraq was trying to procure uranium from Niger. But Rice said that if Tenet had any such misgivings, 'he did not make them known'.
Tenet acknowledged that he was ultimately responsible for the mistake.
"Let me be clear about several things right up front. First, CIA approved the president's State of the Union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my agency. And third, the president had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound," he said.
Tenet said 'fragmentary' intelligence between 2001 and 2002 suggested a nexus between Iraq and Niger, but the CIA kept it out of its briefings because of its 'inconclusive' nature.
"(But) in the fall of 2002, our British colleagues told us they were planning to publish an unclassified dossier that mentioned reports of Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium in Africa.
"Because we viewed the reporting on such acquisition attempts to be inconclusive, we expressed reservations about its inclusion, but our colleagues said they were confident in their reports and left it in their document," he said.
The CIA director said agency officials who previewed portions of Bush's speech expressed concern about the 'fragmented' nature of the intelligence with National Security Council officials.
"Some of the language was changed. From what we know now, agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct, ie, that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa.
"This should not have been the test for clearing a presidential address. This did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches, and CIA should have ensured that it was removed," Tenet said.
PTI