President Bush and his National Security Adviser on Friday placed full responsibility on the Central Intelligence Agency for the inclusion in this year’s State of the Union address of questionable allegations that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa. The President defended his use of the allegation in the January 28 speech by saying it ‘‘was cleared by the intelligence services’’. Within hours of Bush’s comments, CIA Director George Tenet accepted blame for allowing the allegations into the January 28 address, saying the information ‘‘did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches and the CIA should have ensured that it was removed.’’ Bush ratings drop as troop casualty mounts Washington: Public support for President Bush has dropped sharply amid growing concerns about mounting US military casualties and doubts whether the war with Iraq was worth fighting, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Bush’s overall job approval rating dropped to 59 per cent, down nine points in the past 18 days. That decline exactly mirrored the slide in public support for Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq, which now stands at 58 per cent. And for the first time, slightly more than half the country — 52 per cent — believes there has been an ‘‘unacceptable’’ level of US casualties in Iraq, up eight points in less than three weeks. Still, only 26 per cent said there had been more casualties than they had expected. Three in four say they expect ‘‘significantly more’’ American dead and wounded. An overwhelming majority of Americans — 80 per cent — said they fear the United States will get bogged down in a long and costly peacekeeping mission in Iraq, up eight points in less than three weeks. —LAT-WP The extraordinary statements on Friday were part of a coordinated Bush administration effort to try to end a budding controversy over whether the President and his top officials have misled the public and Congress in their pre-war assertions about Saddam’s attempts to reconstitute his nuclear weapons programme. They also amounted to a rare public rebuke to a senior advisers. Tenet, in a prepared statement that had been in the works for two days, said the CIA approved the State of the Union speech before it was delivered. ‘‘I am responsible for the approval process in my agency,’’ he said. ‘‘The President had every reason to believe the text presented to him was sound.’’ The CIA director also made clear that it was members of the President’s National Security Council staff that proposed including the questionable information in drafts of the Presidents speech. (LAT-WP)
