by Jim Kouri - In an effort to hurt Republicans on November 7, the New York Times published a story accusing the Bush Administration of posting Iraqi documents that suggest Saddam Hussein's Iraq was close to building an atomic bomb.

Congressional Republicans had urged the Bush White House to post on a government website many of the documents discovered in Iraq following the 2003 invasion. According to the Times, some of the documents posted could help Iran or other countries build a nuclear weapon.

"Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for UN inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Some experts said at the time preceding the invasion that Hussein's scientists were on the verge of building an atomic bomb, possibly being as little as a year away; other experts disputed that," said the Friday edition of the Times.

"European diplomats said this week that some of those nuclear documents on the Web site were identical to the ones presented to the UN Security Council in late 2002, as the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq. But unlike those on the Web site, the papers given to the Security Council had been extensively edited, to remove sensitive information on unconventional arms."

Former intelligence officer and NYPD detective Sydney Francis says that the New York Times is attempting to have it both ways.

"They say that Saddam wasn't developing nuclear weapons, but then they say Saddam possessed documents that could help someone create a nuclear bomb," says Francis.

The New York Times article falls short of admitting that Iraq was close to building a nuclear bomb. Walking a tightrope, the Times attempts to nail Bush as providing Iran and other countries a "road map" to building an atom bomb on the Iraqi documents website, and at the same time claims Saddam could not have built a bomb with those very same documents.

"The Times is becoming more and more partisan with each passing day. They want to say, 'President Bush allowed sensitive documents to be posted for all to see which could help Iran create a nuclear bomb, but those sensitive Iraqi documents could not have helped Iraq build a nuclear bomb,'" said Francis.

"But analyzing their story indicates a strong possibility that Iraq was on the verge of building an atomic bomb," he said.