Senator Wants Probe of Forged 'Proof' of Iraq Nuclear Program

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miggidy

miggidy

Sicc OG
#1
Jul 24, 2002
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www.soundclick.com
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Fri Mar 14, 3:12 PM ET

By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the FBI (news - web sites) on Friday to investigate forged documents the Bush administration used as evidence against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and his military ambitions in Iraq (news - web sites).

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said he was uneasy about a possible campaign to deceive the public about the status of Iraq's nuclear program.

An investigation should "at a minimum help to allay any concerns" that the government was involved in the creation of the documents to build support for administration policies, Rockefeller wrote in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has denied the U.S. government had any hand in creating the false documents.

"It came from other sources," Powell told a House committee Thursday. "We were aware of this piece of evidence, and it was provided in good faith to the inspectors."

Rockefeller asked the FBI to determine the source of the documents, the sophistication of the forgeries, the motivation of those responsible, why intelligence agencies didn't recognize them as forgeries and whether they are part of a larger disinformation campaign.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The documents indicated that Iraq tried to by uranium from Niger, the West African nation that is the third-largest producer of mined uranium, Niger's largest export. The documents had been provided to U.S. officials by a third country, which has not been identified.

A U.S. government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was unclear who first created the documents. The official said American suspicions remain about an Iraq-Niger uranium connection because of other, still-credible evidence that the official refused to specify.

In December, the State Department used the information to support its case that Iraq was lying about its weapons programs. But on March 7, Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. Security Council that the documents were forgeries.

Rockefeller said U.S. worries about Iraqi nuclear weapons were not based primarily on the documents, but "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."

At a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Thursday, Powell said the State Department had not participated "any way in any falsification."

Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the committee's top Democrat, noted a Washington Post report that said a foreign government might have been conducting a deception campaign to win support for military action against Iraq. When Obey asked Powell if he could say which country that was, Powell replied, "I can't with confidence."

The Niger documents marked the second time that ElBaradei has challenged evidence presented by the United States meant to illustrate Iraq's nuclear weapons program. He also rejected the U.S. position that aluminum tubes imported by Iraq were intended to make nuclear bombs.

ElBaradei has said his inspectors have found no evidence that Saddam has revived its nuclear weapons program.
___

Associated Press writer John J. Lumpkin contributed to this story.


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I ain't gonna comment on this. I'll let you guys do the talking....
 
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phil

Sicc OG
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Apr 25, 2002
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if any of you had actually been to west virginia you would laugh at anything jay rockefeller has to say.

put it like this. democrats do and have run west virginia since forever. go get the largest newspaper in the capital city of charleston. do me a favor and go to the help wanted section. now go to my town of 25,000 in piqua ohio and pick up a paper. you might be surprised to see which has more jobs available. actually it will make you sick to your stomach.
 
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phil

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Apr 25, 2002
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nothing at all. nature is about the only thing going for it. its got high levels of pollution, welfare, obesity, poverty, lack of education, lack of jobs, HIGH TAXES, ENTRENCHED DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS. west virginia is beautiful dont get me wrong, and they got the tightest broads in the world, but no businesses want to go there.
 
Snubnoze

Snubnoze

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May 5, 2002
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Who cares ?WHO? is wanting an investigation. Doesn't the fact that the Bush administration will used documents that are forged bother you in the least? OIC, its the good ol' slander and don't worry bout whats being said....
 
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phil

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Apr 25, 2002
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this article is faulty as hell.

if you cant see that you have a serious problem. and yes jay rockefeller has a lot better shit to be doing than forming imaginary theories about what the president might be doing.

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the FBI (news - web sites) on Friday to investigate forged documents the Bush administration used as evidence against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and his military ambitions in Iraq (news - web sites).
Click to expand...
ok. this paragraph states as fact that the documents gwb are using are forged.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said he was uneasy about a possible campaign to deceive the public about the status of Iraq's nuclear program.
Click to expand...
now this paragraph and the rest of the article go on to assume that might be the case, but not so sure as in the first paragraph.
 
Snubnoze

Snubnoze

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May 5, 2002
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Intelligence documents that U.S. and British governments said were strong evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons have been dismissed as forgeries by U.N. weapons inspectors.

The documents, given to International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, indicated that Iraq might have tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, but the agency said they were "obvious" fakes.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell referred to the documents directly in his presentation to the U.N. Security Council outlining the Bush administration's case against Iraq.

"I'm sure the FBI and CIA must be mortified by this because it is extremely embarrassing to them," former CIA official Ray Close said.

Responding to questions about the documents from lawmakers, Powell said, "It was provided in good faith to the inspectors and our agency received it in good faith, not participating ... in any way in any falsification activities."

"It was the information that we had. We provided it. If that information is inaccurate, fine," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday.

"We don't believe that all the issues surrounding nuclear weapons have been resolved [in Iraq]," he said.

How were forgeries missed?
But the discovery raises questions such as why the apparent forgeries were given to inspectors and why U.S. and British intelligence agents did not recognize that they were not authentic.

Sources said that one of the documents was a letter discussing the uranium deal supposedly signed by Niger President Tandja Mamadou. The sources described the signature as "childlike" and said that it clearly was not Mamadou's.

Another, written on paper from a 1980s military government in Niger, bears the date of October 2000 and the signature of a man who by then had not been foreign minister of Niger in 14 years, sources said.

"The IAEA has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts that these documents -- which formed the basis for the reports of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger -- are not in fact authentic," ElBaradei said in his March 7 presentation to the U.N. Security Council.

Close said the CIA should have known better.

"They have tremendously sophisticated and experienced people in their technical services division, who wouldn't allow a forgery like this to get by," Close said. "I mean it's just mystifying to me. I can't understand it."

A U.S. intelligence official said that the documents were passed on to the International Atomic Energy Agency within days of being received with the comment, " 'We don't know the provenance of this information, but here it is.' "

If a mistake was made, a U.S. official suggested, it was more likely due to incompetence not malice.

"That's a convenient explanation, but it doesn't satisfy me," Close said. "Incompetence I have not seen in those agencies. I've seen plenty of malice, but I've never seen incompetence."

Who made the forgeries?
But the question remains -- who is responsible for the apparent forgeries?

Experts said the suspects include the intelligence services of Iraq's neighbors, other pro-war nations, Iraqi opposition groups or simply con men.

Most rule out the United States, Great Britain or Israel because they said those countries' intelligence services would have been able to make much more convincing forgeries if they had chosen to do so.

President Bush even highlighted the documents in his State of the Union address on January 28.

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," Bush said.

U.S. officials said that the assertion by the president and British government was also based on additional evidence of Iraqi efforts to obtain uranium from another African country. But officials would not say which nation and a knowledgable U.S. official said that there was not much to that evidence either.
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