The chairman of a key congressional committee says he will look closely at new evidence that aides in the White House mishandled communications from the CIA casting doubts on information used by President George Bush to support his case for military action in Iraq.
Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says he has already made the request for testimony from the White House aide involved.
"We have made an inquiry with the National Security Council, with [National Security Adviser Condoleeza] Rice and asked to meet with Mr. Hadley and any other person that might be of particular interest to us," Mr. Roberts said Wednesday on C-SPAN television. "So we will be in the business of taking a hard look at that."
On Tuesday, Deputy National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, told reporters about two CIA memos and a phone call from CIA Director George Tenet that should have prevented a reference to alleged Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa from appearing in the president's State of the Union Address. Senator Robert's request for testimony from White House aides comes as the intelligence committee in the House of Representatives prepares to hold its first public hearing on Thursday.
Public hearings in the Senate are expected to begin in September.
