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Now that the news channels are flooded with stories about the killing of Hussein's sons, it's about time to make a public apology that no one will hear. Or so thinks the White House. Stephen Hadley, President Bush's deputy national security adviser, and top aide to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, apologized for not removing the 16 words in the State of the Union address. He admitted that CIA had sent two memos to him and White House speechwriter with their reservations before Bush's Cleveland, Ohio speech 3 months before the State of the Union address. So why was it still in the State of the Union address? Hadley says:

"I should have recalled (the issue) at the time of the State of the Union address. ... If I had done so, it would have avoided the entire current controversy."

In other words, he forgot.

Yet this is another non-admission admission. The question is not "Who didn't remove the 16 words?" The question is "Who added the 16 words?" Was it Hadley the deputy security adviser? Gerson the speechwriter? Perhaps Robert Joseph, named in the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings? And on whose authority?

Last week, Robert Joseph, assistant to the president in charge of nonproliferation at the National Security Council, was named as the White House official advocating for the original Niger uranium claim to be used in the address. He then argued with CIA officials that the re-written 16 word statement (attributed to the British, and without specifics) was factually correct. But why did Joseph want to use the information in the first place? Why did he persist when he was told that Hadley had been convinced not to use the information 3 months earlier?

Everything points to an intent to use faulty intelligence and pressure to keep it in. This admission by Hadley should not stop the investigation process.