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To: Sully- who wrote (3926)	4/19/2006 10:42:25 AM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

Here are the facts: mediamatters.org And here's more supporting documentation: >>>2. Failure to investigate alarmist perspectives. In a considerable number of cases, Butler demonstrates how sources or claims of dubious reliability but of a highly alarmingly nature were not evaluated thoroughly. Butler explains the lack of checks upon sources by pointing to how the relevant staff - "Requirements" officers, in the jargon - were "junior officers", who were in those positions "in order to make overall staff savings" (§414). However, the failure to investigate properly the claims of alarming sources on such a crucial issue reflects a lack of political priority in evaluating these claims with appropriate scepticism. It is difficult to imagine that if Mr Blair had seriously pressed MI6 or JIC about how reliable their information sources were, it would have been left to "junior officers" to make all the checks on reliability. Two key examples recounted by Butler are: 1. Uranium from Niger. The basis of the government's case, as reported by Butler, was that: "During 2002, the UK received further intelligence from additional sources which identified the purpose of [an Iraqi official's] visit to Niger as having been to negotiate the purchase of uranium ore" (§495). Although these "additional sources" are not described by Butler, one of them was not the Iraqi official at the centre of the allegations - Ambassador Wissam al-Zahawi, referred to by Butler at §502. After he retired from Iraqi government service in 2001, Zahawi was resident in Amman, Jordan (where there is also a large MI6 station) and paid a number of visits to the UK in 2001 and 2002. At no point did British officials contact him to discuss his trip to Niger. The news media in 1999 had quoted him as being the official visiting Niger; when I wanted to contact Zahawi for an interview in 2003, I was able to obtain his telephone number and email address from a reputable academic database without any difficulty whatsoever. The failure of the intelligence services to do this five minute task on an issue so crucial as to be key evidence for whether or not Iraq had an ongoing nuclear programme reflects not just on the junior nature of the staff. It demonstrates the political inexpediency of making a serious attempt to investigate alarming allegations about Iraq for their actual plausibility. Incidentally, the Butler report oddly does not include any reference to the claim from the CIA's director of Weapons, Intelligence, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Centre (WINPAC), as recounted in the Senate intelligence committee report of 7 July 2004 (pp.65, 66). He told the committee that the CIA had urged Britain to remove references to the uranium claim from the September dossier.<<< middleeastreference.org.uk The Butler Report was just like the US Senate Report--Neither investigated political accountability in the interpretation of the intelligence. Here's more on Butler: globalissues.org Butler Report was watered down to protect Blair: telegraph.co.uk Butler Report amended at last minute to protect Blair: dailytimes.com.pk Something funny, something missing from the Butler Report: hinduonnet.com

To: Sully- who wrote (3926)	4/19/2006 10:36:27 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 14758

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