US finally admits Iraq N-claim wrong

The British panel said it was unclear why the British Government asserted as a ‘‘bald claim’’ that there was intelligence that Iraq had sought to buy uranium in Africa. It noted that the CIA had already debunked this intelligence, and questioned why an official British Government intelligence dossier published four months before Bush’s speech included the claim as part of an effort to make the case for going to war against Iraq.

The findings by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee undercut one of the Bush administration’s main defences for including the allegation in the President’s speech — namely that despite the CIA’s questions about the claim, British intelligence was still asserting Iraq had sought to buy uranium in Africa.

Asked about the British report, the administration released a statement that, after weeks of questioning about the President’s uranium-purchase claim, effectively conceded that intelligence underlying the President’s statement was wrong.

‘‘Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq’s attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech,’’ a senior Bush administration official said on Monday night in a statement authorised by the White House.

The Bush administration’s statement capped months of turmoil over the uranium episode during which senior officials have been forced to defend the President’s remarks in the face of growing reports that they were based on faulty intelligence inputs. (LAT-WP)