“Knight-Ridder reporters Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay found a number of senior U.S. officials with access to intelligence on Iraq who thought the [Bush] administration claims [that Iraq purchased aluminum tubes from China to use for uranium enrichment] were fraudulent. …These officials, they said in the fall [October 8] of 2002, ‘charge that administration hawks have exaggerated evidence of the threat that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein poses–including distorting his links to the al-Qaida terrorist network. …They charge that the administration squelches dissenting views and that intelligence analysts are under intense pressure to produce reports supporting the White House’s argument that Saddam poses such an immediate threat to the United States that pre-emptive military action is necessary.’ ”
– James Bamford, A Pretext for War, Pages 327-328