CIA takes blame for Bush speech blunder

CIA Director George Tenet gave Congress and the White House the accountability they demanded, declaring that the blame for President George W Bush’s false allegation about an Iraqi nuclear deal rested squarely with him and his agency.

The CIA should never have let Mr Bush repeat a British allegation that Iraq was seeking uranium from the African country of Niger when US intelligence analysts could not corroborate it, Mr Tenet said in a statement yesterday. The uranium allegation was later proved false.