To me, the most interesting part of this piece came at the end, and touched on Hayden's efforts to improve relations with foreign intelligence services. I always keep in mind the fact that the CIA checked with French intelligence, regarding the possibility Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake from Niger, and got back absolute confirmation there was no possiblity whatever that Iraq had sought to obtain uranium "from Africa" (as George W. Bush referred to it). This was before Joe Wilson was sent to Niger. The CIA also had thoroughly reviewed Iraqi family intelligence sources connected to the domestic armaments industry, and confirmed that Saddam Hussein had destroyed his MWD in the fall of 1991. This iinformation was kept from the White House. Hayden, of course, cannot discuss issues of this sort with the press.