The US House of Representatives has approved a subpoena for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify concerning pre-war claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium from Niger while president of Iraq. The claim, which has since been discredited, was part of the justification for war. Rice has said she is unwilling to answer the subpoena.

The Secretary of State has previously refused to testify because she fears incriminating herself. She’s said that supplying written answers is the best way to answer questions about Iraq’s pre-war weapons, and believes that she has been protected by the constitutional principle of executive privilege. Rice told reporters, “If there are further questions that Congressman Waxman has, then I am more that happy to answer them again in a letter, because I think that that is the best way to continue this dialogue.”

On Wednesday night, Waxman said Rice had left his House committee “no choice but to proceed with the subpoena”. The committee voted 21-10 to issue the subpoena requiring Rice to testify. “We have hit a brick wall with the secretary of state. She will not propose a date to testify, she will not agree to testify, and she insists that our committee be satisfied with partial information that was previously submitted to other committees.”

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