The Orbis

Photo by Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/KRT Much of the evidence used internationally to garner support for the war against Iraq was found to be falsified. [Click to enlarge]

George Bush on Monday hastily withdrew a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that would have authorized the use of military force against Iraq and later that night delivered an international address in which he promised the Iraqi people, "The day of your liberation is near." Many observers, still unconvinced the United States has adequate justification to launch a war, continued to question the veracity of evidence of Iraqi transgressions even after the president's latest performance.

According to U.S. government officials, Iraq has attempted to import aluminum tubes for the purpose of processing uranium. Iraq recently attempted to purchase uranium from the Nigerian government. Iraq has an illegal advanced unmanned drone that can be used to deliver chemical and biological weapons. Iraq has harbored fugitive members of al Qaeda fleeing the conflict in Afghanistan.

These "smoking guns" are the most high-profile pieces of evidence presented by the Bush Administ-ration as justification for war. They conclusively prove that Iraq is not only continuing its nuclear weapons program and attempting to build long-range delivery vehicles in violation of U.N. Resolution 1441, but also that Saddam Hussein is connected to al Qaeda and is therefore indirectly responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The only problem is that every one of these statements is false.

Specialists from the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency and U.N. inspectors have scrutinized the aluminum tubes that Iraq has attempted to purchase.

In his report to the Security Council on March 7, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, said, "Based on available evidence, the IAEA team has concluded that Iraq's efforts to import these aluminum tubes were not likely to have been related to the manufacture of [uranium production equipment], and moreover that it was highly unlikely that Iraq could have achieved the considerable redesign needed to use them in a revived [uranium production] program."

He went on to say that IAEA experts agreed that the tubes were to be used in the construction of conventional rockets rather than uranium production, as the Bush administration has charged.

In his presentation to the United Nations, Secretary of State Colin Powell presented documentary evidence that the Iraqi government had attempted to purchase 500 tons of uranium in recent years.

A review of the documents by the IAEA revealed them to be "obvious" forgeries containing, among other evidence of falsification, the signature of a Nigerian foreign minister who has not been in office for 14 years on a document stamped "October 2000."

While experts have been quick to dismiss the idea that the United States made the forgeries itself, the revelation destroys what previously had been seen as a crucial piece of evidence against Iraq.

Some in the administration have regarded another piece of evidence presented by Powell, the existence the existence of the Remotely Piloted Vehicle, to lead directly to war.

Upon inspection at the Ibn Firnas State Company, just north of Baghdad, journalists such as Brig Imad Abdul Latif discovered that the RPV is made of flimsy balsa wood and powered by "what look like the engines of a weed whacker," according to an Associated Press report.

The vehicle's range, first said to be above the 93-mile legal limit, has since been reported to be closer to five miles. In effect, it is little more than a large remote-controlled airplane, not unlike many flown by hobbyists in the United States.

In response to Powell's outlandish claim, Latif said, "He knows very well that this aircraft is not used for what he said."

The Bush administration has long contended that Iraq is connected to the al Qaeda terrorist organization.

The primary piece of evidence given to support this accusation is the presence of the militant Islamic fundamentalist group Ansar al-Islam, which is based in the northern part of Iraq.

Offering refuge for al Qaeda members who fled after the downfall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the group has imposed Islamic law on its members and has, in the past, engaged in terrorist activities such as blowing up local beauty salons.

However, the area where the group is based is controlled by anti-Saddam Kurds. While Ansar al-Islam has constantly fought against the ragtag governments of the Kurdish separatists, statements given by their captive leader have been equally hostile to Saddam's regime.

The goal of Ansar al-Islam, which has been dismissed as an insignificant cult, is an Iraq ruled by Islamic law, not by Saddam's socialist Ba'ath party. Therefore, in light of the lack of other evidence to support a Saddam-al Qaeda connection, such claims have been regarded with intense skepticism.

While the Bush administration has presented other pieces of evidence to justify war with Iraq, the fact that those pieces that have received the most attention have been proven false has led many critics, both within and outside the United States, to regard all evidence presented by the administration with suspicion.

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