U.S. Said to Doubt British Intelligence
1 hour, 38 minutes ago
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials had doubts about the quality of a British intelligence report alleging Iraq (news - web sites) was seeking uranium from Africa in the weeks just before and after President Bush (news - web sites) made the allegation in his State of the Union address in January, senior U.S. officials said Thursday.
The officials said those doubts were expressed to British officials and across several agencies of the federal government before Bush gave his speech.
CBS, ABC and CNN reported that CIA (news - web sites) officials who saw a draft of Bush's speech even questioned whether his statement was too strong given the quality of the British intelligence but the remark was left in provided it was attributed to the British.
Officials contacted by The Associated Press declined to discuss the nature of discussions between the White House and CIA just before the speech. But they noted the CIA's own assessment before the Iraq war about Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s alleged efforts to make weapons of mass destruction did not give strong credence to the British report, noting skepticism by some analysts.
The officials further noted that a speech Secretary of State Collin Powell gave just a week after the president's address also did not repeat the African uranium allegations.
"When we looked at it more thoroughly and I think a week or two later when I made my presentation to the United Nations (news - web sites), and we really went through every single thing we knew about all of the various issues with respect to weapons of mass destruction, we did not believe that it was appropriate to use that example anymore," Powell explained Thursday. "It was not standing the test of time."
Powell, nonetheless, defended the president use of the British allegation.
"There was no effort or attempt on the part of the president or anyone else in the administration to mislead or to deceive the American people," he said. "The president was presenting what seemed to be a reasonable statement at that time."
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.
But officials have said the doubts about the uranium allegations date back to early 2002, when a retired diplomat asked by the CIA to investigate the reports went to Niger 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, officials have said.
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