Since the speech, the evidence concerning both the uranium purchases and the aluminum tubes has come into question.

He said he had found no evidence to support the claim of a uranium purchase, or even a serious attempt to negotiate one, and that he had reported this to Washington.

A shorter-range goal is relief for mining unemployment through the $750 million uranium purchase.

To create a use for the $750 million uranium purchase, the proposed revival relies on consumption through a process called "overfeeding."

The case of the bogus uranium purchases wasn't an isolated instance.

The Bush administration is scrambling to explain how allegations based on forged documents purporting to show Iraqi uranium purchases from Niger found their way into the State of the Union address.

That same year, however, the United Kingdom and the United States announced their intention to halt uranium purchases in 1963.

Yet the intelligence about a uranium purchase, based on suspect and even forged information, acquired nine lives in Washington.

A four-star general, Carlton W. Fulford Jr., was also sent to Niger to investigate the claims of a uranium purchase.

The White House has faced questions about the uranium purchase for months.