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Bush ducks questions on false Iraq intelligence
Wed Jul 9, 9:52 AM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!



PRETORIA (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) ducked
questions over a White House admission that he used flawed intelligence on
Iraq (news - web sites)'s nuclear program, while insisting he was right to
oust Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

Bush, in South Africa on the second leg of his African tour, faced reporters
for the first time since the White House admitted early Tuesday that he had
overstated Iraq's alleged efforts to procure uranium.


But he deflected a question on whether he regretted highlighting the
allegation in his State of the Union address in January.


"There is no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the world
peace and there is no doubt in my mind the United States along with our
allies and friends did the right thing in removing him from power," Bush
said.


"I am absolutely confident in the decision I made," he said at a joint press
appearance in Pretoria with South African President Thabo Mbeki.


"I'm confident that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."


In his address to the nation delivered in the run-up to the war with Iraq,
Bush said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently
sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."


The White House said the statement should not have been included in the
address because it rested on flawed intelligence.


The charge stemmed from forged documents suggesting that Iraq sought uranium
"yellowcake" from Niger, and from separate information that Saddam sought
the radioactive material from other African nations, White House national
security spokesman Michael Anton said on Tuesday.


"We now know that documents alleging a transaction between Iraq and Niger
had been forged," Anton told AFP, stressing that the White House did not
learn the documents were fraudulent before including the charge in Bush's
speech.


"The other reporting that suggested that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium
from Africa is not detailed or specific enough for us to be certain that
such attempts were in fact made," he said.


"Because of this lack of specificity, this reporting alone did not rise to
the level of inclusion in a presidential speech," the spokesman said.


But, Anton stressed, the allegations that Iraq sought uranium "was not an
element underpinning the judgment" of most US intelligence agencies that
Saddam had revived his stalled nuclear weapons program.


US-led forces in Iraq have yet to unearth conclusive evidence of chemical,
biological or nuclear weapons or close ties between Saddam and Osama bin
Laden (news - web sites)'s al-Qaeda network, two major justifications for
the war.


The White House's backpedalling followed the publication of a British
parliamentary commission report that raised serious questions about the
reliability of British intelligence cited by Bush.


A former US ambassador who investigated the Niger allegation for the Central
Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) said Sunday that the Bush
administration had "twisted" data on Iraq to suit its case for war.


In a New York Times article, Joseph Wilson said he had researched the matter
in 2002 and had informed the administration that the claims were false.

Opposition Democrats in the United States have gone on the offensive against
Bush over the admission that he used flawed intelligence, while top
Republican lawmakers accused them of exploiting a relatively minor issue.


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"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so
long as I'm the dictator." - GW Bush 12/18/2000.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

"Feels Good!"
---George W. Bush on the Brink of Declaring War on Iraq.