Waxman: CIA didn’t clear Bush uranium claims

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman on Thursday asserted that White House officials were lying in 2004 when they stated that the CIA agreed with claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa.

Then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales told Waxman’s committee that the CIA had “orally cleared” the use of the claim that British officials had determined that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa.

{mosads}But Waxman (D-Calif.) said two other White House officials have told committee staff that the CIA specifically would not approve the information for use in two 2002 speeches by Bush.

“Contrary to Mr. Gonzales’s assertions, the committee has received evidence that the CIA objected to the uranium claim in both speeches, resulting in its deletion from the president’s remarks,” Waxman wrote in a letter to committee members released Thursday.

Waxman cited interviews with John Gibson, who served as director of speechwriting for foreign policy at the National Security Council (NSC) and Jami Miscik, deputy director of intelligence at the CIA.

Gibson told the committee that the CIA rejected the uranium claim because it was “not sufficiently reliable to include it in the speech.” He said the CIA “didn’t give that blessing.”

Waxman said Miscik told the committee the White House “wouldn’t take [the uranium claim] out of the speech.” As a result, she was asked to explain directly to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice “the reasons why we didn’t think this was credible.”

Waxman has been digging into the uranium claim since spring 2003. He will leave the committee next month to become chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

White House officials said Waxman was re-hashing old allegations.

“This issue has been well-covered over the past several years,” said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. “We have instituted significant intelligence reforms.”