Niger Uranium Rumors Wouldn't Die for Several Reasons(LAT)

[kpete]

February 17, 2006 latimes.com : National News Single page Print E-mail story Change text size

Niger Uranium Rumors Wouldn't Die
By Bob Drogin And Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writers



The story refused to die for several reasons, including a strong appetite in the Pentagon and the White House for information that supported a case for war, and a widely recognized phenomenon in the intelligence field in which bad information, when repeated by multiple sources, appears to be corroborated.

"This became a classic case of circular reporting," said a U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to reporters. "It seemed like we were hearing it from lots of places. People didn't realize it was the same bad information coming in different doors."

In January 2003, President Bush said in his State of the Union speech that the British government had learned that Iraq "had recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Two months later, U.S. and allied troops invaded Iraq.

Paul Pillar, who retired last year after 30 years at the CIA, said that the White House attributed the charge to the British because the CIA wouldn't vouch for it.

"U.S. analysts said it was just too squishy to use publicly," said Pillar, who was national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia. But administration officials, he said, viewed the unconfirmed charge as "juicy" and easy to understand. "The public says, 'Saddam is buying uranium?' That has simplicity and appeal."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-niger17feb17,0,6889656.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-nation

[stop the bleeding]

1. this stuff should have been hashed out in fall of 2002

[kpete]

3. agreed

[wtmusic]

2. "Squishy" = "False"

"False" has simplicity and appeal.