Old Saw Singeings

Key US intelligence sources disagreed about the likelihood that Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons in order to attack the United States, and reported this to US President George W Bush before the Iraq War, reports The National Journal. If true, this contradicts US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice's statement in October 2003 that neither she nor the President were informed of any disagreement within the agencies. Bush used the threat of an imminent attack by Saddam Hussein as one justification for the war against Iraq. One piece of important evidence behind the threat was the existence of aluminium tubes. The CIA, amongst other US intelligence sources, said the tubes were going to be used to build nuclear weapons. However, two agencies, the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research disagreed and said the tubes were destined for conventional weapons, which was proved true after the war. Two single-page intelligence briefs containing the dissenting opinions were given directly to Bush in 2002 and 2003. These documents, known as 'The President's Summaries', are abridgements of the more detailed analysis and judgments reported in the "National Intelligence Estimates" by a number of different US intelligence agencies.