Posted on 06/11/2003 9:32:56 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
MEMRI Ticker: Headlines from the Middle East Media
Middle East Media Research Institute ^ | Thursday, June 12, 2003 | Edited by MEMRI
Middle East Headlines from the MEMRI News Ticker
RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO TEHRAN ALEXANDER MRYASOV ADVISED IRAN TO SIGN THE 'ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL' SAYING: 'RUSSIA IS NOT GIVING [IRAN] AN ULTIMATUM; THERE IS NO LINKAGE BETWEEN SIGNING THIS PROTOCOL AND OUR [NUCLEAR] COOPERATION WITH IRAN. WE WILL CONTINUE THIS COOPERATION. IF IRAN SIGNS THE ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL, NO ONE CAN SAY IT HAS VIOLATED THE NPT, AND THERE WILL NOT BE ANY ACCUSATIONS.' (IRAN DAILY, 6/12/03)
SOUTH KOREA CONFIRMED THAT IRANIAN AND NORTH KOREAN NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS HELD SEVERAL MEETINGS. (AL-ZAMAN, IRAQ, 6/12/03)
ABDULLAH SULTAN AL-QAHTANI, WANTED IN CONNECTION TO THE RECENT ATTACKS IN RIYADH, THREATENED THE SAUDI AND U.S. GOVERNMENTS WITH TERROR ATTACKS AND DEMANDED THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL RELIGIOUS FIGURES RECENTLY ARRESTED BY THE SAUDIS, SAYING IN A COMMUNIQUÉ, 'WE [WILL] BREAK YOUR BACKS, PULL YOUR NAILS AND YOUR TEETH, SO THAT AFTER KICKING YOU FROM THE ARABIAN PENINSULA, WE WILL LEAD A PROSPEROUS LIFE IN OUR MOTHERLAND, ACCORDING TO THE RULES OF ISLAM.' (IRNA, 6/12/03)
SAUDI ARABIA'S PRINCE SAUD AL-FAISAL WILL TRAVEL TO TEHRAN TO DISCUSS MEMBERS OF AL-QA'IDA WHO ARE ARRESTED IN IRAN, ACCORDING TO A DIPLOMATIC SOURCE. AL-FAISAL WANTS TO KNOW WHETHER THERE ARE SAUDIS AMONG THE DETAINEES. (ARABNEWS.COM, 6/12/03)
FEMALE IRANIAN MP JAMILEH KEDIVAR: EGYPT SEES IRAN'S SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE GROUPS AS AN OBSTACLE TO NORMALIZATION OF BILATERAL TIES BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES, AND ADDED THAT EGYPT WAS DEPICTING IRAN AS AN ENEMY OF THE ARAB WORLD TO STIMULATE PAN-ARAB NATIONALISM. (IRAN DAILY, 6/12/03)
SUDANESE FORCES ENCIRCLED A GROUP OF ARMED MEN, INCLUDING MANY SAUDIS, WHO WERE RECEIVING TERRORIST TRAINING. (AL-HAYAT, LONDON, 6/12/03)
IRANIAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN ABDULLAH RAMEZANZADEH: TALKS WITH THE U.S. HAVE BEEN 'BENEFICIAL FOR NATIONAL INTERESTS,' AND IRAN, 'AS SIGNATORY TO THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY, HAS THE RIGHT TO ASK OTHER COUNTRIES WITH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY TO PROVIDE IT TO US.' (IRNA, 6/11/03)
IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER ALI KHAMENEI SAID WASHINGTON WAS BEHIND RECENT RIOTS IN IRAN. 'U.S. PLANS TO STIR UP UNREST AND TENSIONS IN IRAN REVEAL THE ENEMY'S WEAKNESS SINCE WASHINGTON HAS CONFESSED IT IS UNABLE TO DIRECTLY CONFRONT IRANIANS. IF AMERICANS HAD BEEN ABLE TO ELIMINATE THE ISLAMIC ESTABLISHMENT, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE HESITATED EVEN FOR A DAY; BUT THE ENEMY HAS REALIZED THAT IT CANNOT DO ANYTHING AGAINST THE VALIANT IRANIAN NATION, ESPECIALLY THE BRAVE YOUTH. (IRNA, 6/12/03)
A SYRIAN GOVERNMENT DAILY EDITORIALIZED THAT AMERICAN THREATS AGAINST IRAN, PARTICULARLY REGARDING ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM, DO NOT AUGUR WELL AND RAISE FEARS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC. (TESHREEN, SYRIA, 6/12/03)
KUWAIT IS SIMPLIFYING THE PROCESS OF GRANTING LABOR PERMITS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF IRAQIS AND PALESTINIANS. (AL-QABAS, KUWAIT, 6/12/03)
U.S. FORCES ARRESTED 3 IRANIANS IN KUT, IRAQ, WHO WERE SUSPECTED OF PLANNING TERRORIST ATTACKS. IRAN CLAIMS THEY WERE JOURNALISTS. (AL-SHARQ AL-AWSAT, LONDON, 6/12/03)
IN A PRESS CONFERENCE, PAUL BREMER III, GOVERNOR OF IRAQ, WARNED IRAN FOR THE FIRST TIME AGAINST INTERFERING IN IRAQI AFFAIRS. HE SAID: 'IRANIAN AGENTS ARE ATTEMPTING HARD TO UNDERMINE THE PROCESSES OF DEMOCRATIZATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ.' (AL-ZAMAN, IRAQ, 6/12/03)
IN HIS FRIDAY SERMON, ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE IRANIAN AYATOLLAH MUHAMMAD TAQI MISBAH YAZDI CHARGED THAT $500 MILLION WERE GIVEN TO TOP IRANIAN OFFICIALS BY SPIES. IN RESPONSE, PRESIDENT MOHAMMAD KHATAMI SAID, 'MY GOODNESS, I NEVER GOT ANY SUCH SUM.' (AFTAB-E YAZD, 6/12/03)
Powell Urges Abbas to Restrain Terrorists
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday to move faster to restrain terrorist groups. "We want him to use that limited capability as effectively as he can," Powell told The Associated Press.
In an interview minutes after back-to-back telephone calls to Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Powell said, "We are going to keep moving to peace."
He also said that the U.S.-backed road map for getting there is intact despite a sustained outbreak of violence and that both leaders were still committed to moving forward.
Explosives Found on Plane in Italian Airport
Fox News | June 12, 2003
Update from SkyNews:
Police found a suspected explosive device on a plane waiting to take passengers on board at an airport in Italy.
The device was found under a seat on an Alitalia plane that had flown in to Ancona from Rome and was scheduled to make a return trip.
"There was an anonymous call that the police received. After that, all alarms went off," a fire department official at Ancona's Falconara airport said.
Police removed the device and safely exploded it, the fire official said. No arrests had been made, he added.
The ANSA news agency said investigators said the device appeared to be a cigarette pack with electrical cords sticking out.
The packet was found hidden in a life jacket under a seat, it said.
Alitalia said it was awaiting the results of the police investigation.
Iran's Khamenei Rips Pro-Reform Protests
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei sharply criticized pro-reform protesters and raised the possibility of a harsh crackdown Thursday after two days of demonstrations in which some young people chanted "Death to Khamenei!" and threw stones at police.
The demonstrations were the largest against Iran's leadership in months, involving hundreds of young Iranians, some still teenagers. Though they seemed disorganized, with no apparent leadership, the country's hard-line clerics were clearly taking them seriously.
Khamenei, in a speech broadcast on state television and radio, referred to violence in 1999, when security forces and extremist supporters of hard-line clerics attacked students protesting media restrictions. At least one student was killed and the clash touched off the worst street battles since the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed shah.
"If the Iranian nation decides to deal with the (current) rioters, it will do so in the way it dealt with it on July 14, 1999," Khamenei said.
Authorities condemned the 1999 attack on students but blamed the ensuing riots on opposition groups. Khamenei took a similar line Thursday, saying his opponents would be held responsible for any violence.
"It should not be allowed that a group of people contaminate society and universities with riots and insecurity, and then attribute it to the pious youth," Khamenei said.
Reformist newspapers, which reflect the thinking of established politicians who have been fighting for change for years, offered little commentary on the unrest.
Though many older Iranians are also frustrated with the regime, they have shown little support for the young protesters. Older Iranians appear to be holding back, fearing the consequences if unrest spirals out of control.
The young demonstrators face a determined foe that has defied popular calls for reform for years and is likely to justify anything done to restore calm — including spilling blood — in the name of Islam.
Exiled opposition groups on the other hand have seized the opportunity created by restless Iranian youth, encouraging dissent through avenues like Los Angeles-based Persian TV channels. U.S. pressure on Iran, which Washington accuses of hiding a nuclear weapons program and harboring terrorists, may have further emboldened those who hope to see the regime toppled.
Late Thursday, hundreds of police locked down central Tehran and blocked off all streets leading to a dormitory housing Tehran University students. Police also prevented people from gathering in the streets.
Some 200 students inside the dormitory grounds threw stones from behind the main gate at the police, who did not respond, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
The atmosphere was far more subdued compared to Wednesday night's clashes, when dozens of militant hard-liners on motorbikes chased about 300 mostly teenage protesters, beating them with sticks in the streets outside the dormitory in the city's Amirabad district. Several people were seen being carried away with head injuries.
That night, around 200 students in the dormitory compound hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at riot police who joined militants in attacking protesters. "Death to Khamenei!" the students shouted.
In Iran, criticism of Khamenei is punished by jail and is rarely heard in public.
Late Tuesday about 80 people were arrested after a small student gathering against privatizing universities grew into an anti-regime demonstration.
"The clerical regime is nearing its end," demonstrators chanted. "Vigilantes commit crimes, the leader supports them."
Demonstrators also called for the resignation of President Mohammad Khatami, a popularly elected reformist, accusing him of not pushing hard enough for change.
Khatami doesn't have the power of unelected hard-liners who control the judiciary and the security forces. But the hard-liners don't have popular support, leaving Iran at a stalemate.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite persistent security problems, the United States aims by the end of next month to have reliable power in Baghdad, open the city's airport and have Iraq's main port ready to handle bulk cargo, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
In a public briefing on progress so far in rebuilding Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it was working hard to deliver on promises made to rebuild Iraq but the country was still a dangerous place to work in.
"You still hear gunfire at night in the cities. There are carjackings that happen daily, people are assaulted for things as simple as a truckload of water," Ross Wherry, USAID's senior reconstruction advisor for Asia and the Near East, told reporters after the briefing.
Wherry said USAID, the leading U.S. agency handing out contracts to rebuild Iraq, had been surprised by the level of violence and looting following the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April and that the difficult security situation was increasing operating costs in Iraq.
He said USAID hoped to have the southern port of Umm Qasr ready for big cargo vessels by the end of this month when a 40,000 ton bulk grain vessel was set to unload its goods.
He said he hoped there would be a more reliable power source by the end of July in Baghdad, which is stiflingly hot during the summer and where electricity has been rationed most days to three hours on and three hours off.
Other goals were to reopen Baghdad's airport by July 15 and to ensure that Iraq's children were back in class at the beginning of the new school year in October, an important symbol for Iraqis that life was returning to normal.
He said a grant had been awarded to UNESCO for 5 million new math and science textbooks and discussions were continuing among Iraqis to rewrite the curriculum and to deal with history and other more politically sensitive text books.
He foresaw USAID would be involved in Iraq until 2005. "I don't see us cutting and running on this one," he said.
Iraqi looters carry copper cables in Basra June 12, 2003. Despite persistent security problems, the U.S. aims by the end of next month to have reliable power in Baghdad, open the city's airport and have Iraq's main port ready to handle bulk cargo, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. In a public briefing on progress so far in rebuilding Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it was working hard to deliver on promises made to rebuild Iraq but the country was still a dangerous place to work in.
WASHINGTON - Two Iraqi prisoners were shot trying to escape from a U.S. camp Thursday, and one later died of his wounds, the military said.
U.S. Central Command released few details of the incident, other than to say one prisoner died at an Iraqi hospital and the other was recaptured after the escape attempt.
The dead prisoner was the third of thousands of Iraqis held by the Americans to die while in custody.
American military officials ruled that a Marine acted in self-defense in killing a prisoner on March 29. The Pentagon has launched a criminal investigation into the death of an inmate at a U.S. prisoner camp in Nasiriyah whose corpse was found Friday.
The United States has more than 2,000 Iraqis in custody. They include more than half of the top 55 most wanted Iraqis, other former officials of Saddam Hussein's regime, prisoners of war and looters and other common criminals.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Ten US companies have been asked to submit bids for a plan to reshape the Iraqi economy into a free-market system with a major privatization program.
The US Agency for International Development selected the 10 firms for a streamlined bidding process in an effort to accelerate the restructuring the Iraq economy, USAID spokesman Luke Zahner said Thursday.
Zahner said the bids were requested earlier this month and that the number of firms selected was limited to 10 to "compress the timetable" in an effort to get the project going in six to eight weeks.
The program "will foster economic rehabilitation and reform for Iraq to stimulate the country's international trade and employment," said a USAID statement released this week.
The 10 firms in the competition are: BearingPoint; Booz, Allen and Hamilton; Nathan Associates; IBM Global Services; Development Alternatives, Inc.; Carana Corp; Abt Associates; Chemonics; Deloitte and Touche; and Financial Markets International.
The companies were invited to bid under the terms of a 163-page document describing the project "Economic Recovery, Reform and Sustained Growth in Iraq."
The winning bidder "will provide macroeconomic reform advice, with a focus on tax, fiscal, exchange rate, monetary policy, and banking reform," according to the document.
The contractor "will also seek to change policies, laws and regulations that impede private sector development, trade and investment."
The firm also will help draft plans "to allow for the privatization of state-owned industries and firms and/or establishing a privatization entity."
In Baghdad on Thursday, a top US official said the US-led coalition plans to privatize the first of Iraq's 100 or so state-owned firms within a year as it begins overhauling the centralized economy.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that BearingPoint, which received a similar 40 million dollar job to do economic work in Afghanistan, had been approached on drafting a plan for Iraq.
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Thursday sent its expert on international economic issues to Iraq and other countries in preparation for a conference to secure financial commitments to rebuild Iraq.
John Taylor, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for international affairs, was scheduled to make a quick stop in Paris on Friday before flying on to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan, Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Taylor was scheduled to return to the United States for a June 24 meeting of potential donor countries. The meeting in New York is being jointly sponsored by the United States and the United Nations.
Fratto said the administration hopes the June 24 discussions will lay the groundwork for a conference of actual donors later this summer.
The United States is looking for sizable support from other rich countries as well as international lending organizations to contribute resources to rebuild Iraq's shattered economy.
International Monetary Fund spokesman Thomas Dawson told reporters Thursday that the 184-nation international lending agency currently has its own fact-finding mission in Baghdad gathering information on reconstruction needs. He said other IMF officials working outside Iraq were trying to get an accurate account of the size of the nation's foreign debt.
Dawson said the IMF teams hope to present a preliminary report to the agency's executive board within the next two weeks.
In addition to new loans from the IMF and World Bank, the Bush administration is negotiating with other wealthy nations to restructure Iraq's outstanding loans on more favorable terms that would give the country breathing room.
In Baghdad, Taylor was expected to met with the administration's financial point man on Iraqi reconstruction, Peter McPherson, as well as the top overseer of the entire coalition reconstruction effort, L. Paul Bremer.
Taylor will "review progress and discuss planning going forward," Fratto said.
In Afghanistan, Taylor will check on that country's progress in rebuilding. In Jordan he will attend the World Economic Forum, where regional economic development issues and Iraqi reconstruction will be discussed, Fratto said.
LONDON (Reuters) - Kurdish parties in northern Iraq agreed Thursday to merge their regional administrations in a move intended to give them a united voice after the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein, Kurdish television said.
The political leaders of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan endorsed a plan to unify their authorities, according to a report by the KDP's satellite television channel, monitored by the BBC.
KDP leader Massoud Barzani and PUK head Jalal Talabani attended a meeting in Dukan, northern Iraq, to set up a committee to oversee the unification of their administrations, which are run from Arbil and Sulaimaniya respectively.
"The two sides stressed that the unification of the two administrations was another important step toward uniting the two sides' stances regarding all developments and eventualities," the BBC quoted the television as saying.
Iraq's Kurds share control of the mountainous area through their parallel, cooperating administrations.
They acquired de facto autonomy from Saddam's rule in Baghdad thanks to U.S. air cover following the 1991 Gulf War. But rivalry between the KDP and PUK flared into war in the mid-1990s until a U.S.-brokered cease-fire in 1997.
Kurdish leaders have put aside ambitions for a separate state in return for U.S. assurances of a fair deal from the Arab majority in post-Saddam Iraq.
U.S. ally Turkey fears a united Kurdish state in its southern neighbor, Iraq, could fuel demands for a separate state among its own 12 million Kurds, mainly in the southeast of the country.
Aage Bjerre, the Danish pizza hero, is headed for prison:
A Danish pizzeria owner who refused to serve French and German tourists because their governments did not back the US-led war in Iraq was convicted of discrimination today.
Aage Bjerre, who owns a pizzeria on western Denmark's Fanoe island, argued the Germans and French were "anti-American".
Police were called in, and today a Danish court fined Bjerre 5000 kroner ($1200) or said he could spend a week in jail.
"I will not pay. I'll do the time," Bjerre said after the hearing. "I feel that I was convicted for supporting the coalition."
He said he had received more than 200 letters from around the world offering support, including letters from "nearly every single state in the United States".
"That means a lot more to me than losing money."
Has anyone in Europe been convicted yet for discriminating against Americans?
It's difficult to desribe this heat to someone who has never experienced anything like it, but I'll make an attempt.
You know those cold, cold winter days? Those days when you step outside, and the cold hits your body so hard that it causes you to gasp? And when your bare skin is exposed to the air, it actually hurts?
It's like that, only hot.
~~~
Chief Wiggles -- Straight from Iraq. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The online journal of Chief Wiggles.
Sunday, June 08, 2003
One of the officers, whom I have grown quite close to, who is an infantry commander, told me through his friend that he had a gift for me. Of course I told him that I didn't need a gift of any sort, just the news that they would be leaving would be enough of a gift. But of course they were determined to present me with his gift. He gave me his prayer beads, 103 prayer beads, which really took me by surprise, since I know how much those mean to him. The prayer beads are like a part of them, as a baby would hold on to a pacifier, they are forever counting and rubbing their beads. I was so touched by his gesture of kindness that I was almost brought to tears. It was a special moment.
Aside from just feeling good about helping these men, they are providing us with lots of valuable intel. They even coax each other to provide us with more and more answers to what we are in need of. We have had some great discussions lasting several hours, way into the night at times.
Not all the prisoners are in good standing with us. We have a few guys whom we treat in a very different manner. We have one really bad high-ranking officer that I am working. We are running a few other kind of approaches with them to see how they will react. I can't say much more than that right now, but lets just say that he needs some special care. He is mine, all mine, and I will find a way to make him talk, no joking. Actually it is not that easy and I am constantly praying during the interrogation that I will be inspired to know what might work next. I am humbled by the responsibility, knowing that I am going to need some special help to get some of these nuts to crack.
Once in a while we travel down to the port to check in on the Brits, so we can eat some of their food. We also check in with the Spanish troops to see if we can't buy some steaks and chicken off of them. The Spanish troops have a large boat in the port, with several hundred troops. We are hoping to have a party this Friday, kind of a birthday party for me, which is on June 9th, and a Friday the 13th party, and a party for some new arrivals we had today. We don't need much of a reason to have a party, it is just we don't have many fixins for anything, but we make do. We have established some supply lines and gotten close to the right people, as you know it is all about whom you know.
It was good luck fairy time again, so I went out to the guards at the cages and bought them drinks and chips. They really deserved it, after all they put up with out there, the smell, the prisoners, the heat, etc.
We had a bunch of prisoners come in one night this week, around 36, which took my team until about 1:30 in the morning to completely screen. We have really been putting in some hours, doing our thing and writing up all of our reports, don't forget about that, nothing happens until a report is written and sent off. So today, being Sunday, I gave my team a day off, to just do what ever they wanted. We were all at our burn out point, if we didn't take some time to regroup.
Well tomorrow is another big day, with lots of fun and games planned for all, so I can hardly wait. I have the opportunity to work with the one high-ranking bad dude that has committed so many crimes against these people. I really hope that I can break him down to the point where we can start getting him to divulge some real hard facts, but I believe it is going to take some time.
http://chiefwiggles.blogspot.com/
Do we have an address where we can send support? This is insane!
Thanks for posting this, RC. It gets mind-numbing to continually hear about the whole world b*tching against us.
Former POW, U.S. Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson listens to speakers during a Capitol Hill tribute for her sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus during ceremonies on Capitol Hill Thursday, June 12, 2003. Specialist Johnson, seated, was captured in Iraq at the same time as former POW Jessica Lynch.
Army Sgt. Michael E. Dooley, 23, of Pulaski, Va., is shown in Desert Camouflage Uniform at Fort Carson, Colo., in March 2003. Dooley was shot and killed in an ambush on an American checkpoint in western Iraq near the Syrian border Sunday, June 8, 2003. Dooley was the eighth fatality among soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Carson, and the ninth Fort Carson soldier killed overall.
Corporal Michael Sturgeon, 29, of the British Army's 23 Amphibious Engineer Squadron, looks at the 'Al Mansur', the luxury yacht of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which finally keeled over and sank in the Shaat al Arab waterway at Basra, Iraq, Thursday June 12, 2003. The vessel, which is nearly 400 foot long and was reputed to be able to accomodate some 200 guests, was heavily bombed by coalition forces in the war, since when it has regularly been set on fire and looted by local people.
US Central Command confirmed that a F-16 fighter crashed southwest of Baghdad.
Lieutenant General David McKiernan, commander of all ground forces in Iraq, confirmed that the US-led coalition was conducting a "very lethal" assault on Saddam Hussein loyalists in western Iraq.
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq oil returned to the world market, bringing hopes for economic recovery, as US-led forces went on the offensive against resistance elements and cashiered former Iraqi soldiers battled with police.
Spain meanwhile agreed to take a leading role in a multinational peacekeeping force, in a sector under Polish command.
Four European companies, a Turkish firm and the US company ChevronTexaco were awarded contracts Thursday to buy 9.5 million barrels of Iraqi oil, marking the return of Iraqi oil to the international market after a three-month suspension, industry sources said.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition running Iraq said the contracts still would have to be reviewed by acting ministry chief Thamir Ghadhban and his US adviser, Philip Carroll.
The sale of Iraq oil on international markets was halted following the suspension of the UN oil-for-food program at the beginning of March shortly before the war.
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The CIA expressed doubts as it passed along prewar claims that Iraq sought uranium from the African country of Niger, a senior intelligence official said Thursday. The allegations made it into President Bush's State of the Union address anyway.
About a month after Bush's speech, the United Nations determined the uranium reports were based primarily on forged documents initially obtained by European intelligence agencies.
A Bush administration official said the information was vetted by relevant agencies, and it was included in the president's speech because at the time it was believed to be reliable. It is no longer regarded as such.
The Washington Post, quoting unidentified U.S. officials, said the CIA did not pass on the detailed results of its investigation to the White or other government agencies.
The U.S. intelligence official, however, said the CIA's doubts were made known to other federal agencies through various internal communications, starting more than a year before the war began.
The reports first surfaced around the end of 2001, when the British and Italian governments told the United States they had intelligence that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. That uranium, once fully processed, could be used in a nuclear weapon.
At the time, the allies did not describe their sources, which turned out to be a series of letters purportedly between officials in Niger and Iraq, the intelligence official said. In 2003, U.N. experts determined the letters were forgeries.
The CIA distributed the Europeans' information to the rest of the government in early 2002 and noted that the allegations lacked "specifics and details and we're unable to corroborate them," the senior intelligence official said.
The CIA asked a retired diplomat to investigate the reports. The diplomat went to Niger in February 2002 and spoke with officials who denied having any uranium dealings with Iraq. That information was shared with British officials, and also was reported widely within the U.S. government, the senior intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The British included their information in a public statement on Sept. 24, 2002, citing intelligence sources, that said Iraq "sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." That same day, a U.S. intelligence official expressed doubts to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a closed session about the truth of the uranium reports.
The reports made it into the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that was distributed throughout the U.S. government. But it also said they were uncorroborated and not necessarily believed, the intelligence official said.
Other, fragmentary U.S. intelligence also pointed to an Iraqi effort to acquire uranium in Africa. But the forged letters remained the key source, although it is unclear how much the CIA knew at this point about the original letters acquired by the Europeans.
A public report, gleaned from the classified intelligence estimate and published by the CIA in early October, made no mention of the specific uranium allegation. The CIA did not think the report was reliable enough to be included, the intelligence official said.
A former intelligence official at the State Department, Greg Thielmann, said the Niger uranium claim was long regarded with skepticism. Thielmann retired in September 2002.
However, the uranium report was published in a State Department fact sheet that was put out last Dec. 19 to poke holes in Iraqis' massive declaration to the United Nations in which they said they had no prohibited weapons. The CIA tried unsuccessfully to have it edited out of the fact sheet before it was published, the official said.
It was omitted from future statements by State Department officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell's Feb. 5 address to the United Nations.
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Diotima
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Boneheaded Lie-beral Quotes and this week's CRB
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