MR. RUSSERT: In October, George Tenet asked that the reference to uranium be taken out of the president's Cincinnati speech, how'd it get back in?
DR. RICE: I didn't remember that George Tenet had asked that it be taken out.
MR. RUSSERT: Top Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, on July 23, received two memos from the CIA in October that cast doubt on intelligence reports that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger to use in developing nuclear weapons. Both memos were also sent to chief speechwriter Michael Gerson and one was sent to national security adviser, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Did you ever read the memo?
DR. RICE: I don't remember the memo.
MR. RUSSERT: "The remarks by Rice and her associates raise two uncomfortable possibilities for the national security adviser. Either she missed or overlooked numerous warnings from intelligence agencies seeking to put caveats on claims about Iraq's nuclear weapons program, or she made public claims that she knew to be false."
DR. RICE: Well, neither happens to be true.
DR. RICE: I didn't remember that George Tenet had asked that it be taken out.
MR. RUSSERT: Top Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, on July 23, received two memos from the CIA in October that cast doubt on intelligence reports that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger to use in developing nuclear weapons. Both memos were also sent to chief speechwriter Michael Gerson and one was sent to national security adviser, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Did you ever read the memo?
DR. RICE: I don't remember the memo.
MR. RUSSERT: "The remarks by Rice and her associates raise two uncomfortable possibilities for the national security adviser. Either she missed or overlooked numerous warnings from intelligence agencies seeking to put caveats on claims about Iraq's nuclear weapons program, or she made public claims that she knew to be false."
DR. RICE: Well, neither happens to be true.
Re: WMD - Words of Mass Deception 4:00PM PDT, Apr 4, 2004
"If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, then we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." - Dick Cheney, Meet the Press
"These al Qaeda affiliates, based in Baghdad, now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they've been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months," said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in his presentation to the U.N. Security Council.
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"If we had a relationship with al Qaeda and if we believed in this relationship, we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it." "The answer is no. We do not have any relationship with al Qaeda." - Saddam Hussein
"Many Iraqis would honor you as a guest and give you refuge, for you are a Muslim brother; however, they will not allow you to make their homes a base for operations or a safe house. People who will allow you to do such things are very rare, rarer than red sulfur." -Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to al Qaeda operatives
[America] is looking to a near future, when it will remain safe in its bases, while handing over control of Iraq to a bastard government with an army and police force that will bring back the time of (Saddam) Hussein and his cohorts." -Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to al Qaeda operatives
Bin Laden lashed out at Saddam's government. In an audiotaped message recorded by the al Qaeda leader, bin Laden denounced Saddam's socialist Baath party as "infidels."
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Bottom line: U.S. officials claim there WAS an al Qaeda-Iraq connection -- but the claims are not "solid."
However, we, through occupation, civilian casualties, and our hand-picked goverment, are creating in Iraq a Terrorist Factory out of once peaceful Iraqis.
Tenet told Bush personally that the CIA had no conclusive evidence of the existence of WMD, yet the administration told us that they knew where the WMD was, and that it would only take 45 minutes to deliver it, and that if we didn't act, we would wake up to a mushroom cloud.
"We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." - Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003
"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14, 2003
"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Condoleeza Rice (CNN, Late Edition, Sunday, September 8, 2002;
"we cannot wait for the final proof "the smoking gun" that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." - President George Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.
Inaction might bring "the sight of the first mushroom cloud on one of the major population centers on this planet." - Nov. 12 Gen. Tommy R. Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command
In a speech shortly before the Congressional vote authorizing force against Iraq, President Bush warned that if Iraq could "produce, buy or steal" highly enriched uranium a bit larger than a softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. That was technically true, but the president failed to say that the intelligence community considered it unlikely.
The consensus view, as stated recently by George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, was that Iraq would need five to seven years to make a bomb.
The Bush administration ignored the intelligence they received, and instead played out the now-discredited claim that Iraq "sought uranium oxide, an essential ingredient in the enrichment process, from Africa."
Despite warnings from intelligence analysts that the information was unreliable, the uranium would return again and again, including the Jan. 28 State of the Union address and three other Bush administration statements that month.
-September 24th, 2002 at the Ari Fleischer press gaggle
-September 26th, 2002 "global message" in the Rose Garden with congressional leaders
-September 28th, 2002 radio address.
"I don't remember the [45 minute] statement being made, to be perfectly honest." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon Briefing, February 11, 2004
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!"
--George W. Bush, September 13, 2001
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
--George W. Bush, March 13, 2002
"We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." - Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003
"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14, 2003
"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." Condoleeza Rice (CNN, Late Edition, Sunday, September 8, 2002;
"we cannot wait for the final proof "the smoking gun" that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." - President George Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.
Inaction might bring "the sight of the first mushroom cloud on one of the major population centers on this planet." - Nov. 12 Gen. Tommy R. Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command
In a speech shortly before the Congressional vote authorizing force against Iraq, President Bush warned that if Iraq could "produce, buy or steal" highly enriched uranium a bit larger than a softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. That was technically true, but the president failed to say that the intelligence community considered it unlikely.
The consensus view, as stated recently by George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, was that Iraq would need five to seven years to make a bomb.
The Bush administration ignored the intelligence they received, and instead played out the now-discredited claim that Iraq "sought uranium oxide, an essential ingredient in the enrichment process, from Africa."
Despite warnings from intelligence analysts that the information was unreliable, the uranium would return again and again, including the Jan. 28 State of the Union address and three other Bush administration statements that month.
-September 24th, 2002 at the Ari Fleischer press gaggle
-September 26th, 2002 "global message" in the Rose Garden with congressional leaders
-September 28th, 2002 radio address.
"I don't remember the [45 minute] statement being made, to be perfectly honest." - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon Briefing, February 11, 2004
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!"
--George W. Bush, September 13, 2001
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
--George W. Bush, March 13, 2002
