From Financial Times:
A UK government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq is expected to conclude that Britain's spies were correct to say that Saddam Hussein's regime sought to buy uranium from Niger.
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The inquiry by Lord Butler, which was delivered to the printers on Wednesday and is expected to be released on July 14, has examined the intelligence that underpinned the UK government's claims about the threat from Iraq.
The report will say the claim that Mr Hussein could deploy chemical weapons within 45 minutes, seized on by UK prime minister Tony Blair to bolster the case for war with Iraq, was inadequately supported by the available intelligence, people familiar with its contents say .
But among Lord Butler's other areas of investigation was the issue of whether Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger. People with knowledge of the report said Lord Butler has concluded that this claim was reasonable and consistent with the intelligence.
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The Financial Times revealed last week that a key part of the UK's intelligence on the uranium came from a European intelligence service that undertook a three-year surveillance of an alleged clandestine uranium-smuggling operation of which Iraq was a part.
Intelligence officials have now confirmed that the results of this operation formed an important part of the conclusions of British intelligence. The same information was passed to the US but US officials did not incorporate it in their assessment.
Matt's Chat
I always thought the "45-minutes til chemical death" bit was far-fetched, but the Niger uranium deal was always something that I thought would eventually be proven as having some merit.For the record, here is the paragraph from the 2003 State of the Union Address:
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.[Emphasis added.]
What the President said was that Saddam attempted to buy uranium from an African country; he doesn't specify Niger, but he does cite British intelligence. Also, it is important to note, that the President is not saying whether or not he believed that Saddam succeeded.
Mark's Remarks
Wow, More Lies Exposed from the Mouth of Joe Wilson! More lies exposed from the pages of Moveon.org! Of course, there will be no retractions or even any honest accounting of the lies of those who simply hate this President.The facts of the case are simply this: we know Saddam wanted nukes. The British have some intelligence, naming Niger among other countries. Our President makes a speech saying Saddam wanted to buy nukes from Africa. Liberals say this meant from Niger, or that Saddam succeeded. However, as Matt has pointed out, neither was said. But liberals never ever let the truth get in the way of a good smear! They don't care about the truth, all they crave is power.
