Politics > Politics-USA > War inquiry urged. Uranium claim suspected as part of pattern of deception.
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Politics > Politics-USA |
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"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
09 Jul 2003 07:24:28 AM |
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War inquiry urged. Uranium claim suspected as part of pattern of deception. |
From The Chicago Tribune, 7/9/03:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0307090332jul09,1,5972886.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Critics urge war inquiry
Some wonder if uranium claim was part of pattern of deception
By Stephen J. Hedges, Washington Bureau.
WASHINGTON --
Troubled by a White House admission that a prewar claim about Iraqi
uranium purchases may have been false, critics intensified their
demands Tuesday for an investigation into whether the Bush
administration intentionally exaggerated intelligence to justify a war
with Iraq.
The low-key White House comments late Monday night, backing off
President Bush's assertion in his State of the Union address that Iraq
sought to buy weapons-grade uranium in Africa, were seen as the latest
erosion of the administration's prewar case for the overthrow of
Saddam Hussein.
Persistent questions about whether intelligence was mistaken or
misrepresented could undermine the administration's credibility on the
Iraq war, critics said, even as the U.S. struggles to create stability
in the conflict's aftermath.
Another assertion--that Iraq tried to buy special tubes for use in a
nuclear enrichment process--has been challenged by the UN
International Atomic Energy Agency and is widely viewed as doubtful.
And some U.S. officials have raised their own doubts about
administration claims that two mobile laboratories discovered in Iraq
were intended to make biological weapons.
Some members of the Senate and House intelligence committees said
Tuesday that they were troubled that the uranium accusation was
included in a major presidential address even though it could not be
verified.
"Did the president know about it?" asked Sen. John Rockefeller
(D-W.Va.), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
which is conducting a closed-door review of prewar intelligence
gathering and analysis.
"Who decided this was something they could work with or use? How was
it vetted?"
Rockefeller said it was "very clear to me" that the information about
Iraq buying uranium from Africa "was discredited a long time ago" and
he said the White House should have retracted its claim sooner.
"The whole question of how that got in that speech has to be followed
through," Rockefeller added.
Congressional Republicans suggested such criticism was politically
driven and insisted the administration's justification for war was
sound.
"It's very easy to pick one little flaw here and one little flaw
there," said Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the House majority leader.
"The overall reason we went into Iraq is sound and morally sound. And
it's not just because somebody forged or made a mistake on whether
Saddam Hussein was looking for nuclear material from Niger or
wherever."
Some still skeptical
But Democrats made it clear they would not relent.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) released a letter from the State
Department saying it had warned the UN, just one week after Bush's
State of the Union address, that the reports of the Niger-Iraq deal
were shaky--suggesting serious doubts within the administration even
then about the veracity of Bush's claims.
According to the letter, State Department officials told the IAEA, "We
cannot confirm these reports and have questions regarding some
specific claims."
But a letter from IAEA officials, also addressed to Waxman, denied
that the State Department ever issued such a warning about the
allegation.
"This information was provided without qualification," the letter
said.
Whether the administration cautioned IAEA officials or not, however,
Bush issued no such caution in his address, and Waxman wrote a letter
to Bush on Tuesday demanding to know who was responsible for the false
information being included.
"Acknowledging that you used incorrect information in the State of the
Union address is an important first step," Waxman wrote.
"An even more important step is to explain fully how this happened and
to hold accountable those officials responsible."
Bush is traveling in Africa, and White House spokesman Michael Anton
said he was unaware of Waxman's comments and could not respond.
The House Intelligence Committee is conducting its own review of
intelligence on Iraq before the war, particularly the accuracy of a
CIA "national intelligence estimate" issued last fall that addressed
Hussein's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, as well
as long-range missiles.
Democrats have also called for an independent commission to review the
intelligence the administration cited before the war.
And Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), a presidential candidate and former
chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called on the
administration Tuesday to cooperate with a broader examination of its
prewar activities.
"With this admission from the White House that the president misled
us, George Bush's credibility is increasingly in doubt," Graham said.
The latest controversy was ignited by Joseph Wilson, a diplomat
enlisted by the CIA to travel to Niger to investigate intelligence
reports that Niger had agreed to sell Iraq 500 pounds of "yellowcake,"
a substance from which uranium can be extracted.
Wilson wrote in Sunday's New York Times that he told the
administration of his skepticism about the claim.
He said he shared his findings in briefings with the CIA, the State
Department's African Affairs Bureau and the U.S. ambassador to Niger.
But nearly a year later, Bush cited the alleged attempt by Iraq to
obtain uranium.
"Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading
up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the
intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to
exaggerate the Iraqi threat," Wilson wrote.
An intelligence official familiar with the uranium allegation said of
Wilson's briefing:
"They put it in a cable which was fairly widely disseminated around
the government but was not particularly memorable."
Wilson not named
The official said Wilson's briefing did not state emphatically that
the reported sale was a falsehood.
He also said the cable did not name Wilson but described him as a
"source" and a former U.S. government official.
Anton said Tuesday that at the time of the president's speech, "the
national intelligence estimate on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
referred to attempts by Iraq to acquire uranium from several countries
in Africa. We now know that documents alleging a transaction between
Iraq and Niger had been forged."
UN sources said in March that they believed the documents were forged
by someone in the Niger Embassy in Rome in an attempt to make money
from Western intelligence agencies.
U.S. forces have not discovered any evidence of active chemical,
biological or nuclear weapons programs since they entered Iraq on
March 20.
Late last month they did discover parts to a gas centrifuge uranium
enrichment system buried under a rose bush in the back yard of an
Iraqi scientist since 1991.
_____________________________________________________
"I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria."
Georgie W. Dumwit -- Washington, D.C., Apr. 13, 2003
Harry
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