Bush insisted he made that comment before he learned of the new NIE, though he acknowledged Mike McConnell, his director of national intelligence, gave him an inkling something was up last summer.

"Mike McConnell came in and said, 'We have some new information,' " Bush recalled. "He didn't tell me what the information was. He did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze."

Sen. Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate, said he can't believe the president got tipped off in August to a change and didn't follow-up with questions until last week.

"If that's true," Biden told reporters, "he's one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history."