Senator Questions Motives for War

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who is vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he is "deeply troubled" by controversy concerning President Bush's statements leading up to the war in Iraq.

Bush's comments in his State of the Union speech in January, specifically concerning allegations that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium for nuclear weapons, were "blatantly misleading," Rockefeller charged this week.

"I am deeply troubled by recent revelations of the events surrounding the President's State of the Union speech," said Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

Rockefeller and several other Democrat lawmakers have expressed dismay over statements concerning the alleged uranium purchase attempt. U.S. intelligence sources and the White House have said the information was provided to Bush by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We've known for months that the statement about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Niger was based on fraudulent information," Rockefeller said. "But we still do not know exactly how that information ended up in the president's most important speech how did it happen that our president was allowed to mislead the American people and the world about Iraq's nuclear program?

more