White House 'warned over Iraq claim'(Was the Novak story shopped around?)

BBC ^ | July9,2003

[Dog]

Last Updated: Wednesday, 9 July, 2003, 06:31 GMT 07:31 UK

White House 'warned over Iraq claim'

The CIA warned the US Government that claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were not true months before President Bush used them to make his case for war, the BBC has learned. Doubts about a claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African state of Niger were aired 10 months before Mr Bush included the allegation in his key State of the Union address this year, a CIA official has told the BBC.

On Tuesday, the White House for the first time officially acknowledged that the Niger claim was wrong and suggested it should not have been used in the president's State of the Union speech in January.

Uranium row in quotes But the CIA official has said that a former US diplomat had already established the claim was false in March 2002 - and that the information had been passed on to government departments, including the White House, well before Mr Bush mentioned it in the speech.

Both President Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair mentioned the claim, based on British intelligence, that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Niger as part of its attempt to build a nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Blair is under fire from British MPs about the credibility of a dossier of evidence, which set out his case for war.

And in the US, increasing doubts are being raised about the American use of intelligence.

Forged documents

In his keynote speech to Congress in January, the President said: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

But the documents alleging a transaction were found to have been forged.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer appeared to concede on Tuesday that the uranium claim in the State of the Union address was based on inaccurate information.

"The president's statement was based on the predicate of the yellow cake [uranium] from Niger," Mr Fleischer said.

"So given the fact that the report on the yellow cake did not turn out to be accurate, that is reflective of the president's broader statement."

The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

President George W Bush

Mr Bush's State of the Union address But a former US diplomat, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, went on the record at the weekend to say that he had travelled to Africa to investigate the uranium claims and found no evidence to support them.

Now the CIA official has told the BBC that Mr Wilson's findings had been passed onto the White House as early as March 2002.

That means that the administration would have known nearly a year before the State of the Union address that the information was likely false.

In response, a US Government official told the BBC that the White House received hundreds of intelligence reports every day.

The official said there was no evidence that this specific cable about uranium had been passed on to the president.

But in Congress, Democrats are demanding a full investigation into the intelligence that underpinned the case for war.

They have demanded to know if President Bush used evidence that he knew to be weak or wrong.

British undeterred

The British Government has stood by its assertion, saying the forged documents were not the only evidence used to reach its conclusion that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Africa.

On Tuesday Mr Blair defended the assessment, telling a committee of MPs that it was not a "fantasy" and that the intelligence services themselves stood by the allegation.

"The evidence that we had that the Iraqi Government had gone back to try to purchase further amounts of uranium from Niger did not come from these so-called 'forged' documents, they came from separate intelligence," Mr Blair said.

However, Mr Blair did not specify what that separate intelligence was.

[MJY1288]

Take the Crack Pipe out of your mouth

[dighton]

Returning DUmbass in #13.

[Dog]

Is it true about Dean??

[MJY1288]

I heard it is true about Dean!

[MJY1288]

Maybe even Clark

[Dog]

You mean General Confusion....

Say Moonbeam.........what position did Clark waffle on day??

[Bogey78O]

Did Terrance J. Wilkinson have a hand in this?

[livius]

Oh, I guess the fact that Saddam was a Stalinist dictator who had killed large numbers of his own people and whom we had already "warned"in the past (but unfortunately not wiped out) and who was sending bucks to suicide bombers and other Islamic nuts throughout the Middle East and encouraging Islamism by every means possible and who refused to let the UN do a perfectly reasonable inspection under the terms of the agreement and was starving his own people while using the UN oil funds to build palaces and torture chambers and was a lunatic on the order of Hitler wasn't enough?

Was there something else you creeps from DU wanted? Get a life, sweeties. I know you probably wish to suck on Saddam's toes at night, but please, do try to keep that urge in check.

[dighton]

I question being called a "dumbass". I don't know you nor would I use abusive language to you (actually profane) I have decided not to turn you in for abuse this time but try to post civil and constructive comments full of truth like mine.

Hit abuse, DUmbass, I beg you.

[M. Thatcher]

What fact is wrong?

You didn't present any facts, ace — not a single one. Your post is a string of loony left speculations, straight out of the Democrat black-helicopter handbook. You didn't even pretend to list any facts. Hence your own assertion: "Well my theory here is..." You see, moonshine, a theory is not the same thing as a fact.

Too complicated for you?

[Dog]

Dighton is on report.........I'm telling the other freepers...

[calchey]

How about getting your story straight.
1. Cheney requested more information be conducted by the CIA on the uranium story.
2. Mr. Wilson did not make a written report, only verbal. Guess who to? I'd say his wife.
3. Cheney did not know Mr. Wilson and no one at the White House requested him specifically to go. HIS WIFE RECOMMENDED HIM to someone in the CIA. GEORGE TENET DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE WAS GOING OR HAD GONE. No wonder Wilson didn't make a written report.
4. For the thousandth time on Bush's speech. He did not use sources from our CIA. He used the British report on the uranium, which as everyone has said, still stands by their story.
5. Wilson was not qualified to investigate this. He stayed in the embassy the whole time and talked to a "few people" when he wasn't sipping Tea. hahhahahaha
6. Novak has said just today that Wilson's wife is no undercover, covert, secret anything. Just an analyst.
7. Lie about WMD. Even Clinton said they were there and justifed that by bombing Saddam. Do you remember that little incident?
8. Your confusing this administration with Clinton. This one doesn't "punish", nor kill people to keep their mouth shut.
9. My theory now. The White House welcomes this investigation to prove Wilson and his wife are the problem here. They were being nothing but political in doing this. Wilson didn't count on his wife being exposed for the fraud that she probably is.
10. Have a nice night. :}

[Dog]

Viking kitties.....

[MJY1288]

I guess he should feel lucky that you let him off the hook "this time"

Personally, I think DUmbass was a perfect response to your drivel

[Allan]

Stopped reading when I noted the source of this article.

[jdontom]

But the real crime was invading Iraq on false pretense.

I smell Ozone...Clean-Up on isle 3...