The president had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound, ... These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president.

The background ... makes it even more troubling that the 16 words eventually made it into the State of the Union speech, ... This was a mistake.

We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America. Period.

We assess that Iraq continues to hide critical (weapons of mass destruction) production equipment and material from U.N. inspectors,

raised several concerns about the fragmentary nature of the intelligence with National Security Council colleagues. Some of the language was changed.

Iraq... has also had contacts with al-Qaida. Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies, but the two sides' mutual antipathy toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggests that tactical cooperation between them is possible.