OT: "Bull****. It doesn't make any sense"

French Told CIA of Bogus Intelligence
By Tom Hamburger, Peter Wallsten and Bob Drogin
(Los Angeles Times)

More than a year before President Bush declared in his 2003 State of the
Union speech that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear weapons material in
Africa, the French spy service began repeatedly warning the CIA in
secret communications that there was no evidence to support the
allegation.

The previously undisclosed exchanges between the U.S. and the French,
described in interviews last week by the retired chief of the French
counterintelligence service and a former CIA official, came on separate
occasions in 2001 and 2002.

The French conclusions were reached after extensive on-the-ground
investigations in Niger and other former French colonies, where the
uranium mines are controlled by French companies, said Alain Chouet, the
French former official. He said the French investigated at the CIA's
request.

The repeated warnings from France's Direction Generale de la Securite
Exterieure did not prevent the Bush administration from making the case
aggressively that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons materials.

The CIA requested French assistance in 2001 and 2002 because French
firms dominate the uranium business internationally and former French
colonies lead the world in production of the strategic mineral.

French officials were particularly sensitive to the assertion about Iraq
trying to obtain nuclear materials given the role that French companies
play in uranium mining in France's former colonies.

The French-U.S. communications were detailed to The Times last week by
Chouet, who directed a 700-person intelligence unit specializing in
weapons proliferation and terrorism.

Chouet said the cautions from his agency grew more emphatic over time as
the Bush administration bolstered the case for invading Iraq by arguing
that Hussein had sought to build a nuclear arsenal using uranium from
Niger.

Chouet recalled that his agency was contacted by the CIA in the summer
of 2001 ? shortly before the attacks of Sept. 11 ? as intelligence
services in Europe and North America became more concerned about chatter
from known terrorist sympathizers. CIA officials asked their French
counterparts to check that uranium in Niger and elsewhere was secure.
The former CIA official confirmed Chouet's account of this exchange.

Then twice in 2002, Chouet said, the CIA contacted the French again for
similar help. By mid-2002, Chouet recalled, the request was more urgent
and more specific. The CIA was asking questions about a particular
agreement purportedly signed by Nigerian officials to sell 500 metric
tons of uranium to Iraq.

Chouet dispatched a five- or six-man team to Niger to double-check any
reports of a sale or an attempt to purchase uranium. The team found none.

Chouet and his staff noticed that the details of the allegation matched
those in fraudulent documents that an Italian informant earlier had
offered to sell to the French.

"We told the Americans, 'Bull - - - -. It doesn't make any sense,' "
Chouet said.

Chouet said the information was contained in formal cables delivered to
CIA offices in Paris and Langley, Va. Those communications did not use
such coarse language, he said, but they delivered the point in
consistent and blunt terms.
.

Relevant Pages

  • WMD : French warned CIA various times ...
    ... French Told CIA of Bogus Intelligence ... State of the Union speech that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear weapons ... uranium mines are controlled by French companies, said Alain Chouet, ...
    (soc.culture.french)
  • Re: Fifty-six Deceits in Fahrenheit 911
    ... I agree with your analysis of the CIA situation, ... of the president to be relatively less important Perhaps, ... that GWB had kept Tenet in place tends to indicate that Bush did trust ... LEAST LIKELY to appease the demi-imperialist French and their attempted ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • CIA Warned Counterparts in Europe of Possible Scuzzy Muzzy Terror Attacks
    ... PARIS - The CIA has warned its counterparts in Europe of the possibility of terror attacks in several countries, with Paris' sewage system among the suggested targets, a French official said Thursday. ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Re: What is wrong with you people?
    ... obsolete French, from Middle French, alteration of ... reddition, from Late Latin reddition-, redditio, from Latin reddere ... I think what they are saying is that the CIA invented or 'created' ... Einstein used the 'net? ...
    (soc.culture.scottish)
  • Re: What is wrong with you people?
    ... obsolete French, from Middle French, alteration of reddition, ... CIA had little to do with the creation of that word. ... Ie they coined it to avoid using the term 'torture by proxy' for example. ... I use the word USAian because that is correct English. ...
    (soc.culture.scottish)