About that CIA approval

Several news outlets are now reporting that the White House is saying that the CIA approved Bush's remarks on Iraq in the State of the Union address.

Something important to keep in mind. There's not much doubt that the CIA did approve the information in the SOTU. That's not the issue. The approval, however, came after Bush had changed the line about Saddam seeking uranium from Africa to be credited to the British, rather than being offered as a flat statement. Since the British did issue a report in September that included that information, so in attributing the claim to the British, the statement became "technically true" even though they knew that the claim made in the statement was false.

This is one situation where Bush and company are trying to counter the accusation that they deliberately included false information in the SOTU with the idea that the CIA approved it. The problem for them is that this isn't an either/or situation - both can be equally true. They could have deliberately included false information even after getting it approved by the CIA by phrasing it in a way that put the blame off on the British.