British officials knew there had been no secret trade in uranium from Africa to Iraq seven months before such claims were raised in the September dossier released by Downing Street, the retired US ambassador who investigated the supposed sales for the CIA said yesterday.
In his first public appearance, Joseph Wilson provided a detailed account of the investigations which debunked intelligence reports about sales of uranium from Niger to Iraq. He said it was almost certain British and US leaders knew they were recirculating false reports.
In February 2002, Mr Wilson, a career diplomat who served on the national security council, was asked by the CIA to travel to Niger to investigate reports on the sale of uranium yellow cake from Niger to Iraq during the late 1990s.
He was told vice-president Dick Cheney's office had raised questions about the report.
After an eight-day investigation, Mr Wilson concluded there had been no such sales to Iraq, and shared his findings with embassy staff in Niger, the State Department's Africa affairs desk in Washington, and the CIA, which then reported back to Mr Cheney's office.
He thought the matter settled until last autumn when the US and Britain revived the allegation, both in the Blair government's dossier last September and in President George Bush's state of the union address last January, which cited the British claims.
"That information was erroneous and they knew about it well ahead both of the publication of the white paper and the president's state of the union address," Mr Wilson told NBC's Meet the Press yesterday.
In other interviews yesterday, he said it was almost certain British officials knew the reports on uranium sales had been proved false, well before they appeared in the dossier.
"Given the fact that we were in close cooperation, were close allies, were building the case for our respective populations, it was unfathomable to me that this information would not have been shared," he told the Washington Post
In his first public appearance, Joseph Wilson provided a detailed account of the investigations which debunked intelligence reports about sales of uranium from Niger to Iraq. He said it was almost certain British and US leaders knew they were recirculating false reports.
In February 2002, Mr Wilson, a career diplomat who served on the national security council, was asked by the CIA to travel to Niger to investigate reports on the sale of uranium yellow cake from Niger to Iraq during the late 1990s.
He was told vice-president Dick Cheney's office had raised questions about the report.
After an eight-day investigation, Mr Wilson concluded there had been no such sales to Iraq, and shared his findings with embassy staff in Niger, the State Department's Africa affairs desk in Washington, and the CIA, which then reported back to Mr Cheney's office.
He thought the matter settled until last autumn when the US and Britain revived the allegation, both in the Blair government's dossier last September and in President George Bush's state of the union address last January, which cited the British claims.
"That information was erroneous and they knew about it well ahead both of the publication of the white paper and the president's state of the union address," Mr Wilson told NBC's Meet the Press yesterday.
In other interviews yesterday, he said it was almost certain British officials knew the reports on uranium sales had been proved false, well before they appeared in the dossier.
"Given the fact that we were in close cooperation, were close allies, were building the case for our respective populations, it was unfathomable to me that this information would not have been shared," he told the Washington Post
