CIA Chief Questioned over Dubious Intelligence on Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 17, 2003

CIA Chief Questioned over Dubious Intelligence on Iraq

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US Senators grilled CIA Director George Tenet Wednesday on the intelligence indicating Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Africa in a controversy over why President George W. Bush used this false information to make his case for the war with Iraq.

Tenet testified before a closed session with the Senate Intelligence Committee, his first trip to Capitol Hill since he took responsibility on Friday for approving the inclusion in Bush's January State of the Union speech a statement that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa.

The White House has been under fire in the past several days after that claim turned out to be based on forged documents.

The committee's Republican chairman, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas told reporters that Tenet had been questioned about the uranium claim and he had repeated his responsibility for it.

Roberts said Tenet would be asked to testify before the committee again at a later date.

Two of the Democratic presidential candidates called for the resignation of Tenet while other Democrats tried to turn the blameon the White House.

"If, in fact, it was his fault, then George Tenet has to be held responsible," Senator Joe Lieberman from Connecticut said during a campaign appearance in South Carolina.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, another Democratic presidential candidate, said he has maintained that Tenet should leave.

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, an Intelligence Committee member, said the false claim on the uranium sales was only one of "a lot of other troubling evidence."

"There may have been a pattern of exaggeration or stretching. So this is just one of a number of examples, it is not an isolatedexample," he said.

Senator John Edwards, a Democratic presidential candidate from North Carolina and member of the intelligence committee, told reporters before the session that Bush should take responsibility for his speech.

"The responsibility is not the CIA's, it's not anyone else's. It is the president's responsibility... he has to take responsibility for them," he said.

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