Report: Gonzales And Rice Appear To Have Lied To Congress About Vetting Bush’s Pre-War Uranium Claim

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Report: Gonzales And Rice Appear To Have Lied To Congress About Vetting Bush’s Pre-War Uranium Claims»

In his January 2003 State of the Union address, as part of his effort to make the case for invading Iraq, President Bush infamously declared that “the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” The White House was later forced to repudiate the statement after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson blew the whistle on the claim.

As part of an investigation into pre-war intelligence claims, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked the White House to provide examples of times that the CIA had cleared such uranium references for use in speeches. On January 6, 2004, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales sent a letter to Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) on behalf of Condoleezza Rice that claimed the CIA had “orally cleared” the uranium claim for two of Bush’s speeches.

But in a new memo, House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) says that he has found evidence contradicting Gonzales’ assertions:

The information the Oversight Committee has received casts serious doubt on the veracity of the representations that Mr. Gonzales made on behalf of Dr. Rice. Contrary to Mr. Gonzales’s assertions, the Committee has received evidence that the CIA objected to the uranium claim in both speeches, resulting in its deletion from the President’s remarks.



Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/18/waxman-gonzales-lie/

[superconnected]

1. This sort of funny in a water is wet kind of way.

[barbtries]

2. what's with the "appear to"?

they lied. they deserve to be in prison. for whom is this news?

[Journeyman]

3. So what will anyone *do* about these liars? . . .

We've seen enough evidence that they lied. Where's the evidence such despicable acts have consequences?

[Javaman]

4. So grab me by the nuts and swing me around the room, I'm soooo surprised. nt

[gratuitous]

5. The eternal question

So, what are you going to do about it, Congress?