Posted on 07/13/2003 5:14:06 PM PDT by Pokey78
The French secret service is believed to have refused to allow MI6 to give the Americans "credible" intelligence showing that Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger, US intelligence sources said yesterday.
MI6 had more than one "different and credible" piece of intelligence to show that Iraq was attempting to buy the ore, known as yellowcake, British officials insisted. But it was given to them by at least one and possibly two intelligence services and, under the rules governing cooperation, it could not be shared with anyone else without the originator's permission.
US intelligence sources believe that the most likely source of the MI6 intelligence was the French secret service, the DGSE. Niger is a former French colony and its uranium mines are run by a French company that comes under the control of the French Atomic Energy Commission.
A further factor in the refusal to hand over the information might have been concern that the US administration's willingness to publicise intelligence might lead to sources being inadvertently disclosed.
US sources also point out that the French government was vehemently opposed to the war with Iraq and so suggest that it would have been instinctively against the idea of passing on the intelligence.
British sources yesterday dismissed suggestions of a row between MI6 and the CIA on the issue. However, they admitted being surprised that George Tenet, the CIA director, had apologised to President George W Bush for allowing him to cite the British government and its claim that Saddam had sought to acquire uranium from Africa in his State of the Union speech last October.
The apology follows the International Atomic Energy Authority's dismissal of documents given to it by the CIA, which purported to prove the link, as fakes.
Those documents have been widely identified with last September's British dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium ore from an unnamed country in Africa.
British officials admitted that the country was Niger but insisted that the intelligence behind it was genuine and had nothing to do with the fake documents. It was convincing and they were sticking with it, the officials said.
They dismissed a report from a former US diplomat who was sent to Niger to investigate the claims and rejected them. "He seems to have asked a few people if it was true and when they said 'no' he accepted it all," one official said. "We see no reason at all to change our assessment."
The fake documents were not behind that assessment and were not seen by MI6 until after they were denounced by the IAEA. If MI6 had seen them earlier, it would have immediately advised the Americans that they were fakes.
There had been a number of reports in America in particular suggesting that the fake documents - which came from another intelligence source - were passed on via MI6, the officials said. But this was not true.
"What they can't accuse MI6 of doing is passing anything on this to the CIA because it didn't have the fake documents and it was not allowed to pass on the intelligence it did have to anyone else."
I fully expect some DEVASTATING revelations in the not-too-distant future.
"W" is STILL playing Chess--while his opponents play Checkers. "Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey!"
The impatience of the 'Rats & Leftie Media is one of their greatest weaknesses. "RR" understood this well, & ambushed the "Lefties" repeatedly by gently pointing out that they'd "Stepped on Their Puds!"
What Fun!
Doc
That much I recognize.
You are of that theory too. We are probably right.
Easy now. The First Felon and his legacy deserve a prominent spot in history -- squarely atop the refuse pile in history's dumpster.
I've little doubt that Clinton would collude with Chirac to embarrass the U.S. Hell, he would collude with Osama and Saddam, if he thought it might serve him or his henchlady.
...and they're almost always more reliable.
This is almost poetic, really.
Yep... the infamous Mr. Joseph Williams, Gore campaign operative extroidinaire.
Anyone who resides in the Free Republic knows you are about as dialed-in as anyone can get. If you could expound on this, or provide links to such expositions, I would be in your debt.
I am a registered Libertarian myself, but I am not a rube. I know that when push comes to shove, it's more important for me to vote against international socialism (aka the DNC) than to vote for a fellow Libertarian out to score a few philosphical brownie points.
I learned that lesson the hard way, when I voted for Harry Browne in 1992 instead of George H. W. Bush. It is an error I shall not repeat, ever.
Please enlighten me, O Keeper of the Sacred Flame of Freedom!
"France's first lady expressed her support for a presidential run by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying that such a candidacy would be an inspiration to women worldwide."
Folks, there really is a Watergate style scandal coming. But it is not going to be about the administration. It is going to be about the Democrats.
And Clinton is going to be summond to testify about the knowledge he had concerning Iraq and Bin Ladin in the 9/11 investigation.
Pssst! His words about what he felt during HIS presidency are on record. Every word he spoke about why he felt he had to bomb the asprin factory and Iraq.
What did HE know, and when did he know it, aye?
With Gods help, this will come back to bite the Democrat attackers right in the as.......
1982 : (IRAQI AGENTS PAID $60 MILLION TO ITALIAN SMUGGLERS TO TRY TO OBTAIN SMUGGLE ENRICHED URANIUM, GETS SNOOKERED; THEN SUCCEED IN OBTAINING YELLOWCAKE TO ENRICH ON ITS OWN FROM CHINA, BRAZIL AND NIGER) In 1982 Iraqi agents paid $60 million to a team of Italian-based smugglers who claimed to have access to stores of plutonium and highly enriched uranium. According to U.S. officials, the smugglers' offer was a fraud, and the Iraqis walked away from it empty- handed. Stung by those setbacks, Baghdad turned to a third means of joining the nuclear club: the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade level in gas centrifuges. The centrifuges take uranium-bearing ore or a mixture called yellowcake and separate out the 3% of uranium 235, which is fissionable, from the 97% of uranium 238, which is not. Iraq is known to possess 250 tons of yellowcake, most of it purchased in the 1970s from Brazil, China and Niger. In recent years the country has also begun producing its own yellowcake from mines in northern Iraq. - "When Will Saddam Get the Bomb? Not nearly so soon as the Bush Administration claims, "By William R. Doerner, December 10, 1990 via TIME Capsule, The Evolution of the Iraqi Threat, Monday, May. 13, 2002 of http://www.time.com/time/classroom/article/0,12422,235482,00.html.
I have no doubt .. remember, Clinton himself had been making the arounds
I'll never forget short aftrr he meet with Mandela .. Mandela came out swinging against the US
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