Full Text of Senate Intelligence Committee Report...

Also: Report on Niger Part.

Moreover, the Senate Intelligence Committee's found that Wilson's findings "did not refute the possibility that Iraq had approached Niger to purchase uranium." Writing separately from the full committee report, committee chairman Senator Pat Roberts wrote that:

"Time and again, Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen that the President had lied to the American people, that the Vice President had lied, and that he had 'debunked' the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa . . . [N]ot only did he NOT 'debunk' the claim, he actually gave some intelligence analysts even more reason to believe that it may be true." (Emphasis mine.)



Chairman Roberts' claims are supported by the release of the Butler Report in Great Britain. The Butler Report paid special attention to the 16 words in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union, because while the White House eventually backed away from the 16 word claim and said that it should not have found its way in the speech, the British refused to back away from their finding that Saddam Hussein sought quantities of uranium from Africa. As the summary of the Butler Report reveals, the British were right to stick to their guns:



"We conclude that, on the basis of the intelligence assessments at the time, covering both Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the statements on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa in the government's dossier, and by extension the prime minister in the House of Commons, were well founded. By extension, we conclude also that the statement in President Bush's state of the union address of 2003 that 'the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa' was well founded." (Emphasis mine.)