<< 54201 >> ~NMENT II EXHiBIT 15421 (ID) FAX TRANSMITTAL/MESSAGE SHEET ORIGINATING FAX NUMBER: To: Steve 1-ladley. Deputy National Security From: John E. M~LaughIIn. DDCI Advisor Re: DCI Statement CC: X Ur~ont C) For Rvtew C) please Comment C) Please Reply C) Pleas. Recycle • Comments: Q~1597 LLOO2-02040  << 54202 >> THE D~Prj~y DIRECTOR or CEN’rR~ — WA$117Nyvyrt~h, ,~Lj 001598 LLOO2-0204 1  << 54203 >> STATEMENT BY GEORGE J. TENET DI1~ECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE July ii, 2003 Legitimate questions have arisen about how remarks on alleged Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium in Africa made it into the President’s State of tile Union speech. Ongoing inquiries by the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisoiy Board and the CIA’s Inspector General will eventually shed light on that issue. There is one thing, bowever, that is already clear. These 16 words should never have been included hi text written for the President. All those involved in drafting and vetting this portion of the speech bear responsibility. We at CIA were among those who let the President down. For perspective, a little history is in order. 0 There was fragmentary intelligence gathered in late 2001 and early 2002 on the allegations of Saddarn’s efforts to obtain additional raw uranium from Africa, beyond the 550 metric tons already in Iraq. In an effort to inquire about certain reports involving Niger, CIA’s counter-proliferation experts took the initiative and asked art individual with • ties to the region to make a visit to see what he could learn. He reported back to us that one of the fanner Nigerien officials he met ~tated that he was unaware of any contract being signed between Niger and rogue stares for the sale of uranium during his tenure in office. The same fonner official also noted that he had interpreted Iraqi commercial overtures in 1999 as an attempt to discuss uranium sales. The former officials also offered details regarding Niger’s processes for monitoring and transporting uranium that suggested it would be very unlikely that material could be illicitly diverted. 001599 1 LLO 02-02 042  << 54204 >> Because this report, ill our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not — brief it to the President, Vice-President or other senior Administration officials. We also had to consider that the former Nigerien officials knew that what they were saying would reach the U.S. government and that this might have influenced what they said. In the fall of 2002, my Deputy and I briefed hundreds of members of Congress on Iraq. We did not brief the uranium acquisition story. Also 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. In Septcrnber and October 2002 before Senate Committees, senior intelligence officials in response to questions told members of Congress that we differed with the British dossier on the reliability of the uranium reporting. In October, the Intelligence Community (IC) produced a classified. 90 page National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq’s W~vfl) programs. There is a lengthy section in which most agencies of the Intelligence Community judged that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Let me emphasize, the NIB cited several key reasons for this assessment; the African uranium issue was-net one of them. But in the interest of completeness, the report contained three paragraphs that disc~s Iraq’s significant 550-metric ton uranium stockpile and how it could be diverted while under IAEA safeguard. These paragraphs also cited reports that Iraq began • ~vigorously trying to procure” more uranium from Niger and two other African countries, which would shorten the time Baghdad needed to produce nuclear weapons. The NIB states: “A foreign government service reported that as of early 2001, Niger planned to 001600 2 LLOO2-02043  << 54205 >> send several tons of pure “uranium” (probably yellowcakc) to Iraq. As of early 2001, Niger and Iraq reportedly were still working out the arrangements for this deal, which could be for upto 500 tons of yellowcake.” The Estimate also states: ‘We do not know the status of this arrangement” With regard to reports that Iraq had sought uranium from two other countries,, the Estimate says: “We cannot confirm whether Iraq succeeded in acquiring uranium ore and/or ycllowcake from these sources.~’ Much later in the NIB text, mi presenting sri alternate view on another matter, the State Department’s bureau of Intelligence and Research included a sentence that states: “Finally, the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR’s assessment, highly dubious.” An unclassified CIA White Paper in October made no mention of the issue, again because it was not fundamental to the judgment that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, and because we had questions about some of the repOrting. For the same reasons, the subject was not included in many public speeches, Congressional testimony and the Secretary of State’s United Nations presentation in early 2003. The background above makes it even more troubling that the 16 words eventually made it into the State of the Union speech. This was a mistake. Portions of the State of the Union speech draft came to the CIA for comment shortly before the speech was given. Various parts were shared with cognizant elements of the Agency for review. Although the documents related to the alleged Niger-Iraqi uranium deal had not yet been determined to be forgeries, officials who were reviewing the draft remarks on uranium raised several concems about the fragmentary nature of the intelligence with National Security Council colleagues. Some of the language was change& From what we know now, Agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct — i.e. that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa, This should not have been the test, This did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for Presidential speeches, and CIA should have ensured that it stayed out.. ~~i6Ot 3 LLOO2-02044  << 54206 >> The process involved in producing and reviewing the President’s speech did not work as well as it should have. It is imporrant to stress that our exchanges took place at levels well below the Presidents as typically is the case. I am confident the President bad every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound. I sin re~ponsible for any shortcomings at my Agency. We should have done a better job of serving the President in this matter. 0 001602 LLOO2-02045