I can be certain because before Bush invaded Iraq, the CIA was warning him off saying there was no unequivocal evidence. And I was posting that info for months before and up to the time the idiot invaded. I have not forgotten, but I know people here forget. Uranium reports doubted early on
Fri Jun 13, 7:29 AM ET - USA TODAY
John Diamond USA TODAY
WASHINGTON -- Almost a year before President Bush (news - web sites) alleged in his State of the Union address that Iraq (news - web sites) tried to buy uranium ore in Africa -- seeming proof of an Iraqi effort to build a nuclear bomb -- the CIA (news - web sites) gave the White House information that raised doubts about the claim.
A cable classified ''secret'' went out from CIA headquarters to the White House Situation Room in March 2002 reporting on a visit to the African country of Niger by a retired diplomat on a special mission for the CIA. The envoy, whose name has not been disclosed, was investigating allied intelligence reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore from that country. His account said Iraq had sought closer economic ties with Niger but had not discussed a uranium sale.
The original intelligence reports were based on documents that were shown after Bush's speech to be crude forgeries. But at the time, they raised alarms in the Bush administration that Iraq was acquiring the ingredients for a nuclear weapon. In his January speech, Bush cited British accounts of Iraq's attempt to buy uranium among other tell-tale signs and said that ''Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.''
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the CIA report on the envoy's trip lacked details that would have warned the White House that the uranium-buying allegations were suspect. This failure, the article suggested, may have helped lead Bush to repeat the allegations long after U.S. intelligence had determined that they were groundless.
In a rare public comment, CIA spokesman Bill Harlow insisted the agency kept the executive branch fully informed. ''The CIA has recently provided many, many documents to congressional overseers on this issue, and a careful reading of those documents will confirm that the CIA did not withhold any relevant information from appropriate officials,'' Harlow said.
The incident comes as pressure builds on the Bush administration to prove its prewar allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or programs to produce them -- something the administration has so far been unable to do. While neither the CIA nor the White House explicitly pointed fingers, the back-and-forth suggests that both may be maneuvering to evade blame.
The CIA stands by its cable to the White House as proof the agency was forthcoming. While cautioning that the information on the envoy's trip to Niger did not represent ''finished intelligence,'' the cable, which a U.S. official described in an interview, said people with detailed knowledge of Niger's uranium mining activities said that no contracts had been signed with Iraq or other ''rogue states'' after 1997, and that no uranium ore had been shipped to those states.
Further, in December 2002, a month before Bush's State of the Union address, the CIA told the State Department to drop a reference to the uranium allegations from a white paper on alleged Iraqi weapons programs. In a later presentation on the white paper, John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (news - web sites), cut the Niger reference. |
