Iraq-Niger Uranium Connection: Falsified Evidence Confirmed

Playback: President Bush in his 2003 State of Union Address said:

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa."

With that and other justifications, he sent American soldiers to war in Iraq.

Fast forward: A former US Ambassador has now blown the whistle on the Bush Administration.

The CIA, the State Department, the National Security Council and the vice president's office knew all along that the Niger(Africa) -Iraq uranium connection was false.

Read HERE article by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the New York Times. (Joseph Wilson was Ambassador to Gabon from 1992 to 1995)

Excerpt from Joseph Wilson's article:

Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?

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.

In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the Vice President's office.

In late February 2002, I arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey. I met with Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick at the embassy. The ambassador told me that she knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington.

I spent the next eight days meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business.

It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place. Before I left Niger, I briefed the ambassador on my findings, which were consistent with her own. I also shared my conclusions with members of her staff.

In early March 2002 , I arrived in Washington and promptly provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. I later shared my conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau. The (four) documents should include the ambassador's report of my debriefing in Niamey, a separate report written by the embassy staff, a C.I.A. report summing up my trip, and a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president (this may have been delivered orally). I have spent enough time in government to know that this is standard operating procedure.

The British government published a "white paper" asserting that Saddam Hussein and his unconventional arms posed an immediate danger. As evidence, the report cited Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium from an African country. Then, in January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.

The Vice President's office asked a serious question. I was asked to help formulate the answer. I did so, and I have every confidence that the answer I provided was circulated to the appropriate officials within our government.

America's foreign policy depends on the sanctity of its information. For this reason, questioning the selective use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq is neither idle sniping nor "revisionist history," as Mr. Bush has suggested.

The act of war is the last option of a democracy, taken when there is a grave threat to our national security. More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already. We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons.

Read HERE Robert Scheer's article "A Diplomat's Undiplomatic Truth"

Read HERE transcript of interview with Joseph Wilson on America Morning

Read HERE Walter Pincus's report " Democrats called for investigations yesterday after the White House acknowledged Monday that President Bush should not have said in his State of the Union address last January that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa."

Read HERE BBC's report "A CIA official (told BBC) that a former US diplomat had already established the claim was false in March 2002 - and that the information had been passed on to government departments, including the White House, well before Mr Bush mentioned it in the speech."

Read HERE David Rennie and George Jones's report "White House disowns British claim that Saddam tried to buy uranium"

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