March 17, 2003

The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing regarding a matter of grave concern.  Upon your order, our armed forces will soon initiate the first preemptive war in our nation’s history.  The most persuasive justification for this war is that we must act to prevent Iraq from developing nuclear weapons.

In the last ten days, however, it has become incontrovertibly clear that a key piece of evidence you and other Administration officials have cited regarding Iraq’s efforts to obtain nuclear weapons is a hoax.  What’s more, the Central Intelligence Agency questioned the veracity of the evidence at the same time you and other Administration officials were citing it in public statements.  This is a breach of the highest order, and the American people are entitled to know how it happened.

As you know, I voted for the congressional resolution condemning Iraq and authorizing the use of force.  Despite serious misgivings, I supported the resolution because I believed congressional approval would significantly improve the likelihood of effective U.N. action.  Equally important, I believed that you had access to reliable intelligence information that merited deference.  

Like many other members, I was particularly influenced by your views about Iraq’s nuclear intentions.  Although chemical and biological weapons can inflict casualties, no argument for attacking Iraq is as compelling as the possibility of Saddam Hussein brandishing nuclear bombs.  That, obviously, is why the evidence in this area is so crucial, and why so many have looked to you for honest and credible information on Iraq's nuclear capability. 

The evidence in question is correspondence that indicates that Iraq sought to obtain nuclear material from an African country, Niger.  For several months, this evidence has been a central part of the U.S. case against Iraq.  On December 19, the State Department filed a response to Iraq’s disarmament declaration to the U.N. Security Council.  The State Department response stated:  “The Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger.”  A month later, in your State of the Union address, you stated:  “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”  Defense Secretary Rumsfeld subsequently cited the evidence in briefing reporters.

It has now been conceded that this evidence was a forgery.  On March 7, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, reported that the evidence that Iraq sought nuclear materials from Niger was “not authentic.”  As subsequent media accounts indicated, the evidence contained “crude errors,” such as a “childlike signature” and the use of stationary from a military government in Niger that has been out of power for over a decade.

Even more troubling, however, the CIA, which has been aware of this information since 2001, has never regarded the evidence as reliable.  The implications of this fact are profound:  it means that a key part of the case you have been building against Iraq is evidence that your own intelligence experts at the Central Intelligence Agency do not believe is credible.

It is hard to imagine how this situation could have developed.  The two most obvious explanations — knowing deception or unfathomable incompetence — both have immediate and serious implications.  It is thus imperative that you address this matter without delay and provide an alternative explanation, if there is one.  

The rest of this letter will explain my concerns in detail.

      Use of the Evidence by U.S. Officials

The evidence that Iraq sought to purchase uranium from an African country was first revealed by the British government on September 24, 2002, when Prime Minister Tony Blair released a 50-page report on Iraqi efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.  As the New York Times reported in a front-page article, one of the two “chief new elements” in the report was the claim that Iraq had “sought to acquire uranium in Africa that could be used to make nuclear weapons.” [1]

This evidence subsequently became a significant part of the U.S. case against Iraq.  On December 7, Iraq filed its weapons declaration with the United Nations Security Council.  The U.S. response relied heavily on the evidence that Iraq had sought to obtain uranium from Africa.  For example, this is how the New York Times began its front-page article on December 13 describing the U.S. response:

The official U.S. response was provided on December 19, when Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared before the Security Council.  As the Los Angeles Times reported, “A one-page State Department fact sheet . . . lists what Washington considers the key omissions and deceptions in Baghdad’s Dec. 7 weapons declaration.” [3]   One of the eight “key omissions and deceptions” was the failure to explain Iraq’s attempts to purchase uranium from an African country.

Specifically, the State Department fact sheet contains the following points under the heading “Nuclear Weapons”:  “The Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger.  Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?”  A copy of this fact sheet is enclosed with this letter.

The Iraqi efforts to obtain uranium from Africa were deemed significant enough to be included in your State of the Union address to Congress.  You stated:  “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” [4]   As the Washington Post reported the next day, “the president seemed quite specific as he ticked off the allegations last night, including the news that Iraq had secured uranium from Africa for the purpose of making nuclear bombs.” [5]

A day later, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at a news briefing that Iraq “recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” [6]

Knowledge of the Unreliability of the Evidence

The world first learned that the evidence linking Iraq to attempts to purchase uranium from Africa was forged from the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei.  On March 7, Director ElBaradei reported to the U.N. Security Council:

Recent accounts in the news media have provided additional details.  According to the Washington Post, the faked evidence included “a series of letters between Iraqi agents and officials in the central African nation of Niger.” [8]   The article stated that the forgers “made relatively crude errors that eventually gave them away — including names and titles that did not match up with the individuals who held office at the time the letters were purportedly written.” [9]   CNN reported:

Your statement to Congress during the State of the Union, in particular, raises a host of questions.  The statement is worded in a way that suggests it was carefully crafted to be both literally true and deliberately misleading at the same time.  The statement itself — “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” — may be technically accurate, since this appears to be the British position.  But given what the CIA knew at the time, the implication you intended — that there was credible evidence that Iraq sought uranium from Africa — was simply false.

To date, the White House has avoided explaining why the Administration relied on this forged evidence in building its case against Iraq.  The first Administration response, which was provided to the Washington Post, was “we fell for it.” [15]   But this is no longer credible in light of the information from the CIA.  Your spokesman, Ari Fleischer, was asked about this issue at a White House news briefing on March 14, but as the following transcript reveals, he claimed ignorance and avoided the question:

Plainly, more explanation is needed.  I urge you to provide to me and to the relevant committees of Congress a full accounting of what you knew about the reliability of the evidence linking Iraq to uranium in Africa, when you knew this, and why you and senior officials in the Administration presented the evidence to the U.N. Security Council, the Congress, and the American people without disclosing the doubts of the CIA.  In particular, I urge you to address:   

Given the urgency of the situation, I would appreciate an expeditious response to these questions.  

Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Ranking Minority Member