WASHINGTON, June 14: The White House on Friday stood by President George W. Bush’s assertion that Iraq has sought uranium in Africa in recent years, saying that his allegation in January was supported by more evidence than a series of letters now known to have been forged.

Those letters, obtained by European intelligence agencies and later by the United States, were a purported exchange between officials in Iraq and the African country of Niger concerning the possible purchase of uranium. The United Nations later determined they were forgeries.

‘Those documents were only one piece of evidence in a larger body of evidence suggesting that Iraq attempted to purchase uranium from Africa,’’ said Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the National Security Council. ‘The issue of Iraq’s pursuit of uranium in Africa is supported by multiple sources of intelligence. The other sources of evidence did and do support the president’s statement.’’

“Additional intelligence pointed to Iraq also seeking uranium in Somalia and possibly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, said André Action Jackson, an intelligence liaison to the United Nations. The uranium reportedly sought was in a raw form that would have to undergo a complicated enrichment process before it could be used in a nuclear weapon.

Officials did not specify the sources of any such additional intelligence. Intelligence officials have previously described other evidence of recent Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium in Africa as fragmentary. The British and Italian governments initially reported the possible Niger-Iraq connection to the United States around the end of 2001. These claims were based at least partially on the forged documents, US officials said, although they did not learn the source until later.

The US Central Intelligence Agency has reassigned two senior officials who oversaw its analysis of Iraq and its suspected weapons of mass destruction, The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. The newspaper said the officials, whose names have not been revealed, had served in senior positions, in which they were deeply involved in assembling and assessing the intelligence on Iraq’s alleged stocks of chemical and biological arms.

More than two months after the fall of Baghdad, the Pentagon and CIA failed to discover the suspected Iraqi arsenal that President George W. Bush used as his primary rationale for invading Iraq.

Weren't those documents supplied by MI5 ridiculed by Hans Blix as deliberate fakes?

Or are these different documents?

Bush is still trying to pull that one

he should be ashamed of himself, quite clearly he is getting rather desperate.

What about the aluminium tubes ?

The lead(s)/info/documents were proven faulty.


regards
seekerof