| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"¥" |
| Date: |
17 Jul 2003 10:08:06 PM |
| Object: |
New Details Emerge on Uranium Claim and Bush's Speech |
New Details Emerge on Uranium Claim and Bush's Speech
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON, July 17 — More details came to light today about how disputed
language about Iraq's designs on African uranium appeared in President
Bush's State of the Union address. The words in the January address were the
subject of testimony before a Senate Committee on Wednesday.
In his speech, the president said, "The British government has learned that
Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa."
Senior intelligence officials said today that in the closed-door hearing on
Wednesday, Alan Foley, a Central Intelligence Agency expert on weapons of
mass destruction, said he was asked by Bob Joseph, a proliferation expert at
the National Security Council, whether the president's address could include
a reference to Iraq's seeking uranium from Niger.
The officials said that Mr. Foley's testimony indicated that he told Mr.
Joseph that the C.I.A. was not certain about the credibility of the evidence
concerning Niger and recommended that it be taken out of the speech.
The officials said today that, according to Mr. Foley, Mr. Joseph then asked
him if the speech could instead include a reference to British intelligence
reports that Iraq was interested in seeking uranium from Africa. The
government of Prime Minister Tony Blair included that information in an
unclassified white paper on Iraq and illegal weapons published last
September.
According to intelligence officials, Mr. Foley said he told Mr. Joseph that
the C.I.A. had warned the British that it was not sure about the information
when the paper was published.
According to Mr. Foley's account — which the White House has said it could
not confirm — when Mr. Joseph ultimately asked him whether it would be
accurate to state that the British had reported that Iraq was seeking
uranium in Africa, Mr. Foley agreed. However, Mr. Foley did not tell the
Senate committee that he felt pressured by Mr. Joseph, officials familiar
with his testimony said.
Mr. Foley's testimony about his conversations with Mr. Joseph closely tracks
with the version of events described last week by other C.I.A. officials,
but his testimony conflicts with the version provided by the White House.
Officials have said that Mr. Joseph does not recall Mr. Foley's raising any
concerns about the credibility of the information to be included in the
speech.
The conflicting recollections of the conversations between Mr. Foley and Mr.
Joseph are now at the heart of the feud between the C.I.A. and White House
over who is responsible for President Bush's reference to disputed
intelligence in one of his most important public speeches before the war
with Iraq.
A senior administration official today disputed Mr. Foley's recollection,
saying that none of the drafts of the State of the Union ever contained a
specific reference to Niger. The official said of Mr. Foley's comments: "If
that was the testimony, it is not an accurate accounting of events. There
was never at any time a mention of place or amount in any draft of the state
of the union."
The only question Mr. Joseph recalls discussing with Mr. Foley was whether
to rely on the language on the uranium used in the classified National
Intelligence Estimate or the public British white paper.
"An accurate accounting of events would show that the only conversation that
took place was whether to use a classified or unclassified reference," a
senior administration official said.
In the speech on Jan. 28, the president referred to the fact that Britain
had received reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa, and
never referred to Niger. Three months earlier, at the insistence of George
J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, a specific reference to
Niger was removed from a speech Mr. Bush gave in Cincinnati. Just a week
before that speech, the American intelligence agencies had described
attempted purchases in Niger — and in Somalia and Congo — in the National
Intelligence Estimate provided to members of Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/18/international/worldspecial/18INTE.html?ex=
1059105600&en=c575a304bc251a34&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
--
"From the brief time that we did spend occupying Iraqi territory after the
war, I am certain that had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like the
dinosaur in the tar pit – we would still be there, and we, not the United
Nations, would be bearing the costs of the occupation. This is a burden I am
sure the beleaguered American taxpayer would not have been happy to take
on."
– Norman Schwarzkopf, from his 1993 autobiography, "It Doesn't Take a Hero."
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