White House disowns dodgy UK intelligence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has retracted a statement based on British intelligence that President George W. Bush cited in a January speech -- that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.


The claim was based on forged information, the White House National Security Council says.


The statement followed Monday's report by Britain's Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which raised questions about the reliability of British intelligence cited by Bush in his January 28 speech.


"At the time, the national intelligence estimate on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction referred to attempts by Iraq to acquire uranium from several countries in Africa," said Michael Anton, a spokesman for the security council.


"We now know that documents alleging a transaction between Iraq and Niger had been forged," Anton said.


Both The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that the president's comments on Iraqi attempts to buy nuclear weapons from Africa were based on incomplete and possibly inaccurate information from intelligence agencies.


"Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech," a senior Bush administration official said in a statement authorised by the White House, the Post reported.


Controversy is raging in the United States and Britain over charges the governments of the two countries manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to make the case for war against Iraq.


No evidence of such weapons has been found by the occupying forces in Iraq.


The International Atomic Energy Agency in March dismissed a report about Iraq buying uranium from Niger as being based on forged documents.


Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson disclosed he had travelled to Africa in 2002 to investigate the report.


Wilson, Washington's envoy to Gabon from 1992 to 1995, told The New York Times and NBC on Sunday that he had reported back to the CIA that it was highly doubtful any such transaction had ever taken place.

uk.news.yahoo.com...

YA! Bend over patriots...I've been waitin to do this to ya for a long time..........

Originally posted by Voice_of Doom
YA! Bend over patriots...I've been waitin to do this to ya for a long time..........

Wow. the Brits dropped a ball.
Time is not up yet my friend........wmd.....people gassed to death.
People doused with Nerve Agent-do you know what that does to a person??

Nuclear enrichment materials/parts found in Iraqi scientists backyard under HIS rose bush. Hmmm.

Mass graves of innocents.

If this happened in your backyard you'd be screaming bloody murder.

Bend your self.

"People doused with Nerve Agent-do you know what that does to a person??
Nuclear enrichment materials/parts found in Iraqi scientists backyard under HIS rose bush. Hmmm.
Mass graves of innocents.
If this happened in your backyard you'd be screaming bloody murder. "

People doused with nerve agent....hmm how about nuclear testing on our own soldiers by the US Government in the 1940's and 50's??? Or how about the Tuskegee Syphillius experiment??? Wait... I know... MASS GRAVES!!! You mean the like one at Wounded Knee or Hiroshima. Wake up! IT HAS HAPPENED IN MY BACKYARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You want to take down the dictator with the most WMD, let me show you the way?
Personally I dont care that we went to war. Soldiers dying makes no difference to me. Its a volunteer army they should have known what the consequences were. What really bothers me is that the Administration are nothing but war profiteers. Money, making it, keeping it and making sure their friends get more of it has been the ONLY policy of this administration since they bought the presidency.
If you can't see that, its because you don't want to or you profit from it.

Tyriffic

"Nuclear enrichment materials/parts found in Iraqi scientists backyard under HIS rose bush. Hmmm."

Get your facts absolutely correct on this one, before you make yourself a laughing stock.

The actions of a tyrannical dictator in getting rid of dissidents was not the Bush administration/PNAC's fake agenda for invading Iraq. The clear and present threat of WMDs was the lie. That was the lie. That is (finally) under the microscope, and there is no escaping.

Bush took great pride in becoming the greatest executioner of criminals in his own State. He who lives by the sword (and is a corrupt idiot) dies by the sword.