USATODAY.com - CIA director defends intel officials' prewar efforts: "CIA director defends intel officials' prewar efforts
By John Diamond, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — CIA Director George Tenet said Thursday that the agency never claimed Iraqi weapons were an imminent threat, an assertion critics say calls into question the Bush administration's justification for the war. (Related item: Analysis: Spy chief counters criticism of CIA)

Director of Central Intelligence (CIA) Director George Tenet delivers remarks at Georgetown University.
Joyce Naltchayan, AFP

In a speech at Georgetown University that marked his first public defense of prewar intelligence estimates, Tenet denied any political pressure. 'No one told us what to say or how to say it,' he said. (Related audio: Tenet speech)
But Tenet's claim that CIA analysts never said the Iraqi threat was imminent could worsen the potential political damage for President Bush from the growing weapons controversy and raises questions about whether the administration exaggerated intelligence findings.
The administration has repeatedly denied saying Iraq represented an imminent threat. Critics say the president and others did say that, using different words. Bush, for example, said on Sept. 12, 2002, that Iraq presented 'a grave and gathering threat.'
Tenet's intelligence reports avoided adjectives such as 'imminent,' but they were alarming nonetheless. Among the key intelligence findings before the war were that Iraq might be able to attack the U.S. mainland with chemical or biological weapons carried by drone aircraft and could have a nuclear weapon within a year.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said: 'Today, we found out that George Bush ... and the rest of the administration weren't passing on soun"