Please be clear on one point, Buck. Do you believe the CIA asked the
White House to remove those 16 words from the State of the Union
Address? If you do, how do you say they were wrong in their conclusion?
If CIA wanted those words removed, they would have been removed.
Director Tenet tried to accept the blame for allowing those words to
remain in the State of the Union speech if I recall. If you read the
Senate Intelligence committee notes on the speech, you'll see that
CIAs only interest in editing the speech was to remove classified
material from it (i.e. a reference to 500 tons).
CIA did not ask the President to remove those 16 words.
--buck
