Meet the U.S.

[Stormig]

CIA Questioned Documents Linking Iraq, Uranium Ore

 

By Dana Priest and Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, March 22, 2003; Page A30

 

CIA officials now say they communicated significant doubts to the administration about the evidence backing up charges that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Africa for nuclear weapons, charges that found their way into President Bush's State of the Union address, a State Department "fact sheet" and public remarks by numerous senior officials.

 

That evidence was dismissed as a forgery early this month by United Nations officials investigating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. The Bush administration does not dispute this conclusion.

 

Asked how the administration came to back up one of its principal allegations against Iraq with information its own intelligence service considered faulty, officials said all such assertions were carefully tailored to stay within the bounds of certainty. As for the State of the Union address, a White House spokesman said, "all presidential speeches are fully vetted by the White House staff and relevant U.S. government agencies for factual correctness."

 

Questioned about the forgery during a recent congressional hearing, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, "We were aware of this piece of evidence, and it was provided in good faith to the [u.N.] inspectors."

 

But in the days preceding the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq, some intelligence officials had begun to acknowledge more openly their doubts about how this and other information was used to support charges that Iraq has a significant covert program to produce weapons of mass destruction.

 

"I have seen all the stuff. I certainly have doubts," said a senior administration official with access to the latest intelligence. Based on the material he has reviewed, the official said, the United States will "face significant problems in trying to find" such weapons. "It will be very difficult."

 

According to several officials, decisions about what information to declassify and use to make the administration's public case have been made by a small group that includes top CIA and National Security Council officials. "The policy guys make decisions about things like this," said one official, referring to the uranium evidence. When the State Department "fact sheet" was issued, the official said, "people winced and thought, 'Why are you repeating this trash?' "

 

Some have questioned whether the United States was duped by a foreign government or independent group. "There is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) wrote last Friday to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. An FBI inquiry, Rockefeller wrote, "should, at a minimum, help to allay any concerns" that the U.S. government itself created the documents to build support for the war.

 

Others have been more direct in suggesting a plot closer to home. In a letter sent to Bush on Monday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) asked for a full accounting of "what you knew about the reliability of the evidence linking Iraq to uranium in Africa, when you knew this, and why you and senior officials in the administration presented the evidence to the U.N. Security Council, the Congress, and the American people without disclosing the doubts of the CIA."

 

The first public charge that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium for nuclear weapons in Africa came from Britain, in a document published last Sept. 24. In December, a State Department "fact sheet" said that the African country in question was Niger, and that Iraq's failure to declare the attempted purchase was one of the many lies it told about its weapons of mass destruction.

 

In his State of the Union address in January, Bush said "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." In separate statements in January, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made the same charge, without mentioning the British.

 

British officials said they "stand behind" the original allegation. They note they never mentioned "Niger," the subject of the forged documents, and imply, but do not say, that there was other information, about another African country. But an informed U.N. official said the United States and Britain were repeatedly asked for all information they had to support the charge. Neither government, the official said, "ever indicated that they had any information on any other country."

 

U.S. intelligence officials said they had not even seen the actual evidence, consisting of supposed government documents from Niger, until last month. The source of their information, and their doubts, officials said, was a written summary provided more than six months ago by the Italian intelligence service, which first obtained the documents.

 

Shortly after receiving the documents, the United States turned them over to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Within weeks, U.N. inspectors, along with an independent team of international experts, determined that the documents were fake.

 

One of the documents was a letter, dated July 2000 and apparently signed by the Niger president, discussing Iraq's agreement to purchase 500 tons of uranium oxide, and certifying that it was authorized under the Niger constitution of 1965. But U.N. officials quickly noted that Niger had promulgated a new constitution in 1999, and that the letter's signature bore little resemblance to the actual signature of President Tandja Mamadou.

 

Another letter, dated in 1999, was signed by the Niger foreign minister. But the letterhead belonged to the military government that had been replaced earlier in 1999, and the signatory had left the job of foreign minister in 1989.

 

The apparent genesis of the letters, or at least the U.S. and British willingness to believe in them, was a 1999 tour of African countries, including Niger, by Iraq's ambassador to Italy, noted at the time by a number of Western intelligence agencies. At some later point, a U.N. official recently told reporters, a Niger diplomat turned the letters over to Italian intelligence, which provided summaries of the information to Washington and London.

 

Two weeks after the Sept. 24 British publication, the Niger story appeared in a classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate, a summary of U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusions about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, although the report noted that the information had not been verified and the CIA had not confirmed that the uranium sale had gone through.

 

The State Department's December fact sheet, issued to point out glaring omissions in a declaration Iraq said accounted for all of its prohibited weapons, said the declaration "ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger." Asked this week to comment on the fact sheet, a CIA spokesman referred questions on the matter to the State Department, where a spokesman said "everything we wrote in the fact sheet was cleared with the agency."

 

Staff writer Glenn Kessler contributed to this report.

 

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Mar22.html

[Stormig]

This should be interesting: the anti-war movement - roots, growth, groups, global, etc.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world...mer/antiwar.htm

 

Check it when I get back.

[Stormig]

I guess Rumsfeld is a sissy poo himself after all. All they did was interview the American POW's and al-Jazeera broadcast that, and he started whining about the Geneva Convention. What would he do if they had actually been treated inhumanely, i.e., tortured to death like Americans did al-Qaeda suspects and members (not POW's and not on American soil no less)? Bomb Iraq out? Oops, he's already done that. I'm surprised CNN entertainment didn't show them. Can you spell - H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E-S?

 

Some stuff for CNN entertainment - first, an American soldier hand-grenading his comrades, then Americans hitting the "missile" button instead of the coffee button to "accidentally" launch missiles into Turkey, and just this morning civilian deaths and injured when a passenger bus was blasted over at the Syrian border by Americans. Oh, BTW, did they really bring down a British plane or were they telling us what had happened during Gulf War I?

[Stormig]

We know those missiles aren't very smart.

 

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/.../bomb-m10.shtml

[Stormig]

IMPORTANT! The photos referenced to are graphic.

Iranian opinion on what is going on next door.

http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2003/March/...ran2/index.html

[Sip]

I thought you can't really have a "meet the US" thread without this really cool quote by Powell. I just thought the quote itself was very well put.

 

Supposedly when in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if the US plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.

 

He answered by saying that, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."

 

It became very quiet in the room.

[Guest Fadi]

Seaphan, I am really surprised by your answer here, a rational guy like you, answering with an emotional quote that means totaly nothing. I guess that is why Powell was against this war, and that he only support it because his government does it.

[Sip]

What's so strange is that a huge portion of this nation actually believes and lives by CNN's version of things. Sure, the politicians may be corrupt (it comes with the territory) ... sure there are a lot of ugly politics going on in the world ... but if you want to "meet the US", you should also meets it's people who don't hesitate to open their hearts and wallets to help whenever the world asks for something ... and they don't hesitate to send their sons and daughters to their deaths for something they believe in their minds to be "right".

 

I'll give you a simple example about the true US: When you drive on the streets here, most people FOLLOW THE LAWS .. they stay in their own lane, stop at stop signs, stop and red lights, etc! I mean yes, this sounds like a rediculous example but I think it is truely symbolic of the kind of mentality people have ... they do believe in doing what is "right". Of course there are the bad apples, but I am talking in general.

 

I can't say this about too many other nations which I have lived in.

 

These are GOOD people. They really think they are doing the right thing. They are genuienly concerned about the rest of the world at times (I am talking about the average "joe"). But the rest of the world doesn't necessarily get to see this.

 

I certainly didn't see it before I came here and experienced it first hand. I did grow up hearing and cheering death to America in school. But average american is not the selfish, ignorant, wastefull, lazy, dumb-ass that the world believes him or her to be.

 

[ March 27, 2003, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]

[Guest Fadi]

Seaphan, I have nothing against the people, the people has good intention, I have nothing against(oh well, a little bit ) the Americans, Americans intention is good concerning their support for the war in Iraq, but their intention has nothing to do with the intention of their own government. Aboush asked to the congress 75 billion dollar this week, thats about 1/8 of the Canadian total debts. They are trowing your money for a very questionable action, while you let them do it.

[Sip]

Well, I won't argue with you there

 

My only point was that I believe Powell's quote, I think, really captures how the american people in general feel here.

[Guest Fadi]

10:27 PM thats the last time there was a post at the moderators corner, I am waiting that this changes to a newer hour, in order that I could hope that perhaps that new post concern the modification of the title "Computers and Internet" And that tomorow, I visit the site, to see that the name was changed for "Science and technology"

[Azat]

Fadio, Don't hold your breath.

[Azat]

Here is the crap that PISSES me off.

 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ostwar_us_oil_1

 

Halliburton Awarded Firefighting Contract. Mind you that this was a no bid contract. They just accidentally choose the company that Cheney use to run. What a big surprise. It is not like they are the best at it or they even were the biggest last time around.

[Guest Fadi]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Azat:

Fadio, Don't hold your breath.

---

So you are a conspirationist as well ?

[MJ]

Azat,

 

Do you have info on the size of the contract, the list of potential competitors and the time they would require to get ready for the action?

[Azat]

MJ, there is no value on the contract at the current time as the number of wells may change. It possibly is very small in the big scheme of things. Last time there were some 700 wells on fire I believe it is 10 or so so far this time. And I am sure that they do have to be ready FAST. I am sure they will be in once they get the okay from the Army that it is secure enough for them to get in.

 

But that is not the point. I have worked for the government and we HAD to get bids to even change the smallest of things. How can they just hand this to Halliburton? You know what, if they had given the contract to XYZ company I probably would have been okay with that as well, instead of Halliburton that starts to make me wonder.

[MJ]

Azat,

 

I can guarantee you that this is a very small contract (6-7 wells), at a below commercial rate, during a war-time, and the service needs to be on the ground in the shortest period of time.

 

In general, there are less than 4-5 companies, I think that can do the job, and for most of them it would make no economic sense – at least due to economy of scale considerations.

 

Have you considered that the subsidiary of the Halliburton might have agreed to do it as a favor or as an act of patriotism?

 

Also, how long do you think will it take to bring together a tender and identify a winner, theoretically speaking?

[Sasun]

This is quite true. I didn't see it this way until recently. I suspect George W. Bush also believes like many ordinary folks (in his case that is due to his stupidity because at his post he should have known more). Imagine if the people learned what really is going on and took the control, the world would really benefit from it!

[Stormig]

Sip, erh, sorry, but - I think I heard someone tell me... Well, I can't back it up; maybe someone else can. But Powell around here is known for answering the question, "Do you know about the number of casualties during the Gulf War?" with a subtle "I don't care." That means more to me.

 

[Stormig]

Sip,

 

Being a good person and opening up the wallet and heart does not preclude opening up the ears and the eyes - nor are the two mutually exclusive. Please don't reinterpret what I am / we are saying. Show me, for example, one instance where I have demonized Americans. Why does my pointing out the policies of the U.S. and the ludicrous support and apologetics it gets from its population generate these types of emotional outbursts on your part? That is a question you will have to answer for yourself. And please don't tell us what you grew up with, OK? We simply don't care for it any more than we do for Hagarag's family's genealogy.

 

[THOTH]

Well as a Haliburton stock holder (really!) - I say "Its about time!" - LOL . No Azat - I do understand your concerns. It all stinks a bit eh - if even just the appearences...just like my old friend (well not really...) Richard Perle...LOL..I suspect that history will not judge America/this administration well when it is all said and done...just imagine it - Hillary in 2004...this will be their final legacy...LOL

 

I was certainly not a supporter of the approach this adminstration has taken - letting their game plan come before all rason and diplomacy...not letting the inspections or international process work...but now that we are in there I very much hope for a swift victory with minimal collateral damage/issues...though it seems this is not to be as the game plan (Iraqi's buckling under and following instructions dropped by leaflet) is not going to work...no matter what the war outcome I fear that the international ramifications (incl further radicalization of the Islamic world) will be severe and not good for the U.S. (or the West) in the long run...(and certainly if this becomes Vietnam 2..or somthing akin to the French in Algeria...certainly a disaster...but perhaps a [costly] lesson...things will really be in chaos in the world...and the cost...the cost - in multiple dimensions...do we truly "do what it takes to achieve victory" no matter what the costs in resources and the blood of our young?

[vava]

EXACTLY! This whole situation sucks.

 

Even if the US has decide that they are going to police the world (for the benefit of the citizens, of course) - then this is certainly not an appropriate tack that will ensure the peaceful co-habitation of our planet. When will we see through the guise? Greed does not equal democracy. (And this has almost nothing to do with the good Amercian people - who are being deceived and misled by their government, and the multinationals that will profit from their policies.... )

 

Argh! I quit.

[Stormig]

These people are so funny.

 

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/s...,180252,00.html?

 

"Pentagon likens suicide attack to terrorism"

 

Talking about below-the-belt, anyone wanna talk about psy-ops?

[Stormig]

http://www.GuluFuture.com/news/scott_ritter030325.htm

 

US WILL LOSE

THE IRAQ WAR

-SAYS SCOTT RITTER

 

 

25th March, 2003

by Fintan Dunne, Editor

http://www.GuluFuture.com

 

Thorn in the side of the American administration, and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, has warned that America will lose the Iraq war and the American military: "will leave Iraq with its tail between its legs."

 

In an interview with Irish radio, Mr. Ritter said that the conflict would become an "absolute quagmire," and the US-UK advance would stall outside Bhagdad and fail to capture the city.

 

 

Listen to

Ritter

Realplayer

3 mins

"We find ourselves... facing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements numbering around 7 million --who are concentrated at urban areas. We will not win this fight. America will loose this war," said Mr. Ritter.

 

According to Mr. Ritter, too many in the Pentagon have listened to: "the blithering of Iraqi expatriates," whose agenda coincides with neo-conservatives in the White House.

 

"We're in Iraq --carrying out the right-wing neo-conservative motives of a handful of people. The Richard Perle's, Paul Wolfowitz's; the Dick Cheney's. And we've allowed them to hijack our foreign policy," he told Irish broadcaster, Vincent Browne on the RTE1 radio "Tonight Show."

 

He warned that Shia Muslims in the South were not fighting because of intimidation by the Iraqi government, but because of nationalistic and religious reasons.

 

"They're doing it because, the American Crusader Infidel has invaded and violated Holy Iraq, and they will resist us, and they will resist us strongly," said Mr. Ritter. "We are not liberating Iraq, we are destroying Iraq," he added later in the interview.

 

Scott Ritter, is a former U.N. weapons inspector and author of the book "Endgame." Ritter, a ballistic missile technology expert, worked in military intelligence during his 12-year career in the U.S. armed forces. In 1998, Ritter resigned from the U.N. Special Commissions team to protest Clinton Administration policies that he said subverted the weapons inspection process.

 

Full Transcript & Audio follows below.

 

Discussion of situation in Iraq from

Tonight Show, on RTE1 24th March, 2003

 

 

Listen to full Gulf War Analysis Segment Audio

25 minutes[ Realplayer]

 

Vincent Browne:

" Scott Ritter...

are you surprised by how

the assault in Iraq is going?

Scott Ritter:

 

 

Listen to

Ritter

 

Realplayer 3 mins " No actually, I wrote a paper that was published last Fall, that predicted just this. And i'm a little disturbed in listening to some of the analysis going along here.

 

I think that one of the reasons the American find themselves in such difficulties in Iraq, is that so many in the Pentagon have listened to the... blithering of Iraqi expatriots who have spoken out --rightly so-- against Saddam Hussein, and who think that it's a) the role of the United States to liberate Iraq; and think that the Iraqi people want us to liberate them from Saddam.

 

And I think that the harsh reality is that in buying off on the expectations of being greeted in the streets of Iraq with song and flowers... we now find we are being greeted with bullets and bombs.

 

And it's the Shia in the south who are fighting us. They're not doing it because Chemical Ali is down there with his death squads threatening to execute 'em.

 

They're doing it because, the American Crusader Infidel has invaded and violated Holy Iraq, and they will resist us, and they will resist us strongly.

 

And no matter how many Iraqi's we kill and slaughter, I predict that America will loose this war and ultimately the American military will leave Iraq with its tail between its legs.

 

Unfortunately, we're going to inflict a tremenduous amount of death and destruction on the people of Iraq; the American soldiers and Marines will also pay a price.

 

And all those who sit outside of Iraq and courageously encourage Americans to go in and slaughter Iraqi's should be ashamed of themselves."

 

 

Vincent Browne: "...You think the Americans will lose this war? "

Scott Ritter:

" We lost Vietnam....

 

Remember we can kill many, many Iraqui's and we will do so. But I am telling you right now, that we do not have sufficient combat power in Iraq --as we speak-- to win this battle. So we will have to reinforce considerably.

 

The current posture, in terms of American deployment, is predicated on a presumption that the Iraqi Army would surrender; that the Iraqi people would welcome; that the internsational community would support.

 

The exact opposite is happening.

 

And now we find ourselves with fewer than 120,000 boots on the ground; facing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements numbering around 7 million --who are concentrated at urban areas.

 

We will not win this fight. America will loose this war.

 

Saddam Hussein may die... But you know what?

 

I'm betting that Saddam's gonna be around a lot longer than anyone can predict.

 

I'm betting that we don't capture Bhagdad.

 

I'm betting that we stall outside Bhagdad.

 

I'm betting that this becomes an absolute quagmire.

 

I hope I'm wrong, for the sake of the American lives that are going to be lost. Remember I'm a 12 year veteran of the Marine Corps. I fought in the first Gulf War. I know what war is about. I know what defending my country is about.

 

This is a bad war, because it has nothing to do with the defense of the United States of America. Iraq doesn't have weapons of mass destruction. The Bush Administration has pulled an enormous lie to the international community; to the American people.

 

And now we're in Iraq --carrying out the right-wing neo-conservative motives of a handful of people; the Richard Perle's, Paul Wolfowitz's; the Dick Cheney's. And we've allowed them to hijack our foreign policy.

 

And they've been cheered on by these Iraqi expatriots, who have zero credibility in my eyes. They're so brave and they want Iraq liberated... Then my goodness man, go to Iraq... fight and die for your country... But don't ask Americans to do it.

[Sip]

I was somewhat in agreement with this guy until I read that ... what a whacko!!!! OF COURSE Iraq has weapons of mass destruction! Of course the US knows that Sadam has them. Why? Cause guess who gave it to Sadam?!!!!!

 

But yah, it seems like most people here had assumed US will just waltz in and will be embraced with open arms by the Iraqi people. Anyone who has ever spent any time in the region should know that is the farthest thing from truth. People get shocked here when they hear of "suicide" bombs ... it is a very foreign concept to them for example that someone could jump on a dirt bike and just charge a mine field in battle ... clearing a few of the exploding mines until that one that brings him to a stop but closer to his ultimate wonderul faith of being with Allah.

 

... and then there are these sorry-ass FREAKS here who are bitching and complaining about the use of dolphins to find the mines at sea.

 

[ March 30, 2003, 01:53 PM: Message edited by: Sip ]