The aluminum tubes charges by colin powell
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/18/iraq/main537096.shtml
Interviews with scientists about the aluminum tubes the U.S. says Iraq has imported for enriching uranium, but which the Iraqis say are for making rockets. Given the size and specification of the tubes, the U.N. calls the "Iraqi alibi air tight."
The inspectors do acknowledge, however, that they would not be here at all if not for the threat of U.S. military action.
So frustrated have the inspectors become that one source has referred to the U.S. intelligence they've been getting as "garbage after garbage after garbage." In fact, Phillips says the source used another cruder word. The inspectors find themselves caught between the Iraqis, who are masters at the weapons-hiding shell game, and the United States, whose intelligence they've found to be circumstantial, outdated or just plain wrong.
The claimed uranium purchaces from africa:
UN Official - Fake Iraq Nuke
Papers Were 'Crude'
3-26-3
VIENNA (Reuters) - A few hours and a simple internet search was all it took for U.N. inspectors to realize documents backing U.S. and British claims that Iraq had revived its nuclear program were crude fakes, a U.N. official said.
Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, a senior official from the U.N. nuclear agency who saw the documents offered as evidence that Iraq tried to buy 500 tons of uranium from Niger, described one as so badly forged his "jaw dropped.''
"When (U.N. experts) started to look at them, after a few hours of going at it with a critical eye things started to pop out,'' the official said, adding a more thorough investigation used up "resources, time and energy we could have devoted elsewhere.''
The United States first made the allegation that Iraq had revived its nuclear program last fall when the CIA warned that Baghdad ``could make a nuclear weapon within a year'' if it acquired uranium. President Bush found the proof credible enough to add it to his State of the Union speech in January.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official said the charge Iraq sought the uranium was to be the "stake in the heart'' of Baghdad and "would have been as close to a smoking gun as you could get'' because Iraq could only want it for weapons.
OBVIOUS FAKES
Once the IAEA got the documents -- which took months -- French nuclear scientist Jacques Bautes, head of the U.N. Iraq Nuclear Verification office, quickly saw they were fakes.
Two documents were particularly bad. The first was a letter from the president of Niger which referred to his authority under the 1965 constitution. That constitution has been defunct for nearly four years, the official said.
There were other problems with the letter, including an unsuccessful forgery of the president's signature.
"It doesn't even look close to the signature of the president. I'm not a (handwriting) expert but when I looked at it my jaw dropped,'' the official said.
Another letter about uranium dated October 2000 purportedly came from Niger's foreign minister and was signed by a Mr. Alle Elhadj Habibou, who has not been foreign minister since 1989.
To make matters worse, the letterhead was out of date and referred to Niger's ``Supreme Military Council'' from the pre-1999 era -- which would be like calling Russia the Soviet Union.
After determining the documents were fakes, the IAEA had a group of international forensics experts -- including people from the U.S and Britain -- verify their findings. The panel unanimously agreed with the IAEA.
"We don't know who did it,'' the official said, adding that it would be easy to come up with a long list of groups and states which would like to malign the present Iraqi regime.
The IAEA asked the U.S. and Britain if they had any other evidence backing the claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium. The answer was no.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei informed the U.N. Security Council in early March that the Niger proof was fake and that three months with 218 inspections at 141 sites had produced ``no evidence or plausible indication'' Iraq had a nuclear program.
But last week Vice President Dick Cheney repeated the U.S. position and said that ElBaradei was wrong about Iraq.
"We know (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons,'' he said.
The claimed al qeuda connections:
BBC NEWS Wednesday, 5 February, 2003, 04:19 GMT Leaked report rejects Iraqi al-Qaeda link
Bin Laden 'does not agree with Saddam's regime'
There are no current links between the Iraqi regime and the al-Qaeda network, according to an official British intelligence report seen by BBC News.
The classified document, written by defence intelligence staff three weeks ago, says there has been contact between the two in the past.
Leaked intelligence document
But it assessed that any fledgling relationship foundered due to mistrust and incompatible ideologies.
That conclusion flatly contradicts one of the main charges laid against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by the United States and Britain - that he has cultivated contacts with the group blamed for the 11 September attacks.
The report emerges even as Washington was calling Saddam a liar for denying, in a television interview with former Labour MP and minister Tony Benn, that he had any links to al-Qaeda.
Peace prospects
It also comes on the day US Secretary of State Colin Powell goes to the United Nations Security Council to make the case that Iraq has failed to live up to the demands of the world community.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is also ratcheting up the rhetoric in the ongoing crisis over Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, saying the prospect of a peaceful outcome is "diminishing" by the day.
The defence intelligence staff document, seen by BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan, is classified Top Secret and was sent to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior members of the government.
It says al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden views Iraq's ruling Ba'ath party as running contrary to his religion, calling it an "apostate regime".
"His aims are in ideological conflict with present day Iraq," it says.
Gilligan says that in recent days intelligence sources have told the BBC there is growing disquiet at the way their work is being politicised to support the case for war on Iraq.
He said: "This almost unprecedented leak may be a shot across the politicians' bows."
Iraqi co-operation
Mr Straw, writing in Wednesday's Times newspaper, focuses on Iraq's failure to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction rather than on its links with terrorism.
"I have hoped and prayed all along that this crisis could be resolved by Iraq's co-operation with weapons inspectors," he says.
"But... it seems increasingly clear that Saddam will never voluntarily relinquish his weapons."
French President Jacques Chirac, as he met Mr Blair on Tuesday, called for UN weapons inspectors to be given more time, saying "there is still much to be done in the way of disarmament by peaceful means".
But Mr Straw said "endless" calls for more time were "futile" and risked being a "cop-out".
Both the US and UK are pushing for a second UN Security Council resolution soon, which could authorise force against Iraq.
Colin Powell has said the dossier of evidence against Iraq he is presenting to the Security Council will be "a straightforward, sober and compelling demonstration" that Baghdad is deceiving UN weapons inspectors and failing to disarm.
TV interview
Saddam Hussein himself denied on Tuesday having any weapons of mass destruction.
He told Mr Benn in the interview broadcast by Channel 4 News: "These weapons do not come in small pills that you can hide in your pocket.
"These are weapons of mass destruction and it is easy to work out if Iraq has them or not."
Denying any connection with al-Qaeda, he said: "If we had a relationship with al-Qaeda and we believed in that relationship, we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it."
More documentation on these points can be provided.
I don't put that much stock in the testimony of tortured prisoners.
SS