From the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s July 7, 2004, report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq: on October 6, 2002, “After recommending that a reference to the Iraqi pursuit of African uranium be stricken from a draft of a presidential speech set for October 7, the CIA faxes a fuller account of its reasoning: ‘Three points: (1) The evidence is weak. One of the two mines cited by the source as the location of the uranium oxide is flooded. The other mine cited by the source is under the control of the French authorities. (2) The procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq’s nuclear ambitions because the Iraqis already have a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory. And (3) we have shared points one and two with Congress, telling them that the Africa story is overblown and telling them this is one of the two issues where we differed with the British.’ ”
– Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Page 252