July 8th , 2003
DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats pressed for deeper
investigation of pre-war U.S. intelligence efforts Tuesday after the White
House admitted President Bush had erred in his State of the Union speech when
he said Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium in Africa.
As weeks have passed with the American search
turning up no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, criticism has been building
concerning assertions the administration made as justification for the war.
"This is a very important admission," said
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. "It's a recognition that
we were provided faulty information. And I think it's all the more reason why a
full investigation of all of the facts surrounding this situation be
undertaken."
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking
Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, also said that the development
underscored a need for more investigation.
"The reported White House statements only
reinforce the importance of an inquiry into why the information about the bogus
uranium sales didn't reach the policy-makers during 2002 and why, as late as
the president's State of the Union address in January 2003, our policy-makers
were still using information which the intelligence community knew was almost
certainly false," Levin said.
Michael Anton, a spokesman for the White
House's National Security Council, said in a statement, "We now know that
documents alleging a transaction between Iraq and Niger had been forged."
Anton also said the documents were not the sole
basis for Bush's contention is his speech that "the British government has
learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium
from Africa."
The spokesman said that when Bush made the
speech in January, there was other intelligence indicating that Iraq had tried
to acquire uranium from several countries in Africa. This other information,
however, was not detailed or specific enough to prove such a contention, he
said.
"Because of this lack of specificity, this
reporting alone did not rise to the level of inclusion in a presidential
speech," Anton said. "That said, the issue of Iraq's attempts to acquire
uranium from abroad was not an element underpinning the judgment reached by
most intelligence agencies that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons
program."
On June 8, national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice, too, had said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Bush was wrong
when he said the British government had learned that Iraq had sought uranium
from Africa to build weapons.
"No one in our circles knew that there were
doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery," she said. "Of course, it
was information that was mistaken."
The latest White House statement followed
assertions by an envoy sent to Africa to investigate allegations about Iraq's
nuclear weapons program. The envoy, Joseph Wilson, said Sunday that the Bush
administration manipulated his findings, possibly to strengthen the rationale
for war.
Several investigations are under way in
Congress, but Democrats said much more was needed.
Rep. Janice
Schakowsky of Illinois called for an independent, non-congressional
inquiry.
"Did the Bush administration knowingly deceive
us and manufacture intelligence in order to build public support for the
invasion of Iraq?" she asked. "Did Iraq really pose an imminent threat to our
nation?"
Democratic lawmakers hoping to replace Bush in
the White House were vehement. Calls for more investigation came from Sens. Bob
Graham of Florida and John Kerry of Massachusetts and Reps. Richard Gephardt of
Missouri and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
"George Bush's credibility is increasingly in
doubt," Graham said. Gephardt asserted, "This president has a pattern of using
excessive language in his speeches and off-the-cuff remarks."
Said Kerry, "The Bush administration doesn't
get honesty points for belatedly admitting what had been apparent to the world
for some time - that emphatic statements made on Iraq were inaccurate."
A British parliamentary commission also has
been questioning the reliability of intelligence about Iraq trying to obtain
weapons of mass destruction.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted
Tuesday that he was right to go to war and that weapons of mass destruction
would be found in Iraq.
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