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Rice admits 'Iraq uranium hunt'
blunder
TIM CORNWELL
DEPUTY FOREIGN EDITOR
CONDOLEEZZA Rice, a
leading hawk on the Iraq war who publicly pressed the case
that Saddam Hussein might soon develop a nuclear arsenal, is
being singled out for blame in the backlash over Iraq’s
missing weapons of mass destruction.
Ms Rice, George
Bush’s national security adviser, and her top deputy have been
snared in the Washington row over Britain’s claim that Iraq
tried to buy uranium in Africa. Mr Bush, the US president,
repeated that charge in his State of the Union speech early
this year, as the build-up to war in Iraq began in earnest.
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein
recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa," he said.
The former president Bill Clinton
has advised fellow Democrats that the subject is a
non-starter. But leading Democrats jockeying to be their
party’s presidential candidate have used it to attack Mr Bush,
talking about a "credibility gap". Tony Blair has stuck to his
government’s claim that Saddam’s regime went shopping for
uranium in Niger. But a letter purporting to back the claim
was exposed as a crude fake.
The prime minister of
Niger, Hama Hamadou, has now told a British Sunday newspaper
that it is "unthinkable" his country would sell Iraq uranium -
after it sent 500 troops to join the coalition ranged against
Saddam in 1991.
Ms Rice, a close adviser to Mr Bush on
foreign policy since the days when he launched his White House
campaign, often made the case that Iraq was a potential
nuclear threat, even as United Nations inspectors said they
had found no evidence to that effect.
Ms Rice has
claimed she either did not read, or remember, warnings from
the CIA that the uranium story was flimsy. But the CIA, it has
now emerged, sent her White House staff two memos setting out
its objections. The CIA director George Tenet spoke to her
deputy, Stephen Hadley, on the subject by telephone. At least
one of the memos was sent to Ms Rice.
Ms Rice is
billed as a high-flyer in Republican Party circles. She has
been talked of as a future US secretary of state, a governor
of California, her home state, or even a future president, the
Washington Post noted yesterday.
As a loyal Bush aide
her job is safe. But both Mr Hadley, and Ms Rice, have now
apologised for not keeping the questionable claim from
sullying Mr Bush’s speech. "I failed in that responsibility,"
Mr Hadley said. |
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