WASHINGTON - CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet told members of Congress a White House official insisted that President Bush (news - web sites)'s State of the Union address include an assertion about Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s nuclear intentions that had not been verified, a Senate Intelligence Committee member said Thursday.
Sen. Dick Durbin, who was present for a 4 1/2-hour appearance by Tenet behind closed doors with Intelligence Committee members Wednesday, said Tenet named the official. But the Illinois Democrat said that person's identity could not be revealed because of the confidentiality of the proceedings.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan was quick to dispute Durbin's account. "That characterization is nonsense. It's not surprising, coming from someone who was in a rather small minority in Congress who did not support the action we took," McClellan told reporters.
Durbin, appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," said that Tenet "certainly told us who the person was who was insistent on putting this language in which the CIA knew to be incredible, this language about the uranium shipment from Africa."
"And there was this negotiation between the White House and the CIA about just how far you could go and be close to the truth and unfortunately those sixteen words were included in the most important speech the president delivers in any given year," Durbin added.
Countered McClellan: "The whole idea that the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was not real was something that was never under debate previously. This is an attempt to continue to rewrite history."
Tenet - described as "very contrite" - told the Senate panel he was responsible for bad intelligence finding its way into Bush's Jan. 28 speech to Congress and the nation. In that address, the president cited the accusation about an African connection as part of his justification for going to war to oust Saddam.
"The more important question is who is it in the White House who was hellbent on misleading the American people and why are they still there?," Durbin said Thursday.
"Being a member of the Intelligence Committee I can't disclose that but I trust that it will come out," he said. "But it should come out from the president. The president should be outraged that he was misled and that he then misled the American people."
Durbin and other Democrats in the Senate had said earlier the question is not why Tenet failed to remove the Africa information from the speech, but who insisted on leaving it in. "All roads still lead back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," Durbin said.
He promised to offer an amendment later Thursday to a pending defense spending bill "calling on the president to report to Congress as to exactly how intelligence was used by his White House. Was he given good information, or people in his White House given good information, which was then hyped or spun or exaggerated to try to create this sentiment in favor of war. That's a very important question."
The claim that Saddam sought uranium from Africa was supported by British intelligence but rejected by U.S. officials. It was based, at least in part, on a series of forged documents.
Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), blamed Tenet for failing to seek the removal of the statement from the January speech. Tenet issued a statement Friday accepting responsibility.
After Wednesday's hearing, Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., described Tenet as "very contrite. He was very candid, very forthcoming. He accepted full responsibility."
Roberts said it was clear "there were mistakes made up and down the chain." He said the hearing reaffirmed his belief that "the handling of this was sloppy."
Roberts also said he expected to hold open hearings on the Iraq (news - web sites) intelligence, probably in September.
But Democratic committee members said too much blame was being placed on Tenet.
"In a sense, I feel a little badly for George Tenet," said Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore.
Wyden said the CIA was not pushing to have the uranium matter included in Bush's speech, but that the White House was trying to justify its drive to oust Saddam.
"I believe that there was if not a battle royal between the CIA staff and the White House staff, certainly some back and forth," he said. "I believe that in this case, the White House political staff was looking at every rock, every nook and cranny to make their case and I believe the political staff prevailed."
Responding to a question, Roberts said White House officials may be called before the panel to discuss the handling of the intelligence.
Both the Senate and House intelligence committees are holding inquiries on whether prewar intelligence was inaccurate or mishandled to help Bush make the case for war. Democrats have stepped up demands for a formal investigation after the White House acknowledged that the uranium claim should not have been in the State of the Union speech.
A proposal by Sen. Jon Corzine (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., for an independent investigation of the prewar intelligence was defeated Wednesday in the Senate on a 51-45 vote. Corzine sought to include the amendment as part of a $386.6 billion defense spending bill.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, described the proposal as "an attempt to smear the president of the United States."