Following the November 2001 investigation by the U.S. embassy in Niger into sales of uranium from Niger to Iraq, “State Department analysts…concluded that the Niger deal was a fraud. In December 2001, Greg Thielmann, director for strategic proliferation and military affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), reviewed Iraq’s WMD program for Secretary of State Colin Powell. ‘A whole lot of things told us that the report was bogus,’ said Thielmann. ‘This wasn’t highly contested. There weren’t strong advocates on the other side. It was done, shot down.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, Page 229