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Originally Posted by cmac2012
Would that be the same British intelligence who were trying hard to cover their backside, so hard that they relied on a document which, though I’ve not seen it, is reputed to be a crude, crude forgery?
As Wilson and the General quoted below have pointed out many times, uranium mining in Niger is/was tightly controlled by a French consortium which had absolutely nothing to gain and a lot to lose in supplying uranium to Saddam. I think I heard this general on NOW or Frontlines, though I’m not sure. The topic was the same and the guy was way credible. I’ll have to look for it in my videos.
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2004/07/yellowcake-and-yellow-journalism.html
Republicans harp on Wilson yet never discuss Marine Gen. Carlton W. Fulford Jr., a four-star general who traveled to Niger and confirmed Wilson's findings. Before we let the propagandists toss certain key facts down the memory hole, re-read this Washington Post story published exactly one year ago:
In an interview, Fulford said he came away "assured" that the supply of "yellowcake" was kept secure by a French consortium. Both Fulford, then deputy commander of the U.S. European Command and his commander, Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, said the issue did not surface again, although they were both routinely briefed on weapons proliferation in Africa. "I was convinced it was not an issue," Fulford said.
Fulford was asked by the U.S. ambassador to Niger, BarbroOwens-Kirkpatrick, to join her at the meeting with Niger's President Mamadou Tandja on Feb. 24, 2002. "I was asked to impress upon the president the importance that the yellowcake in Niger be under control," Fulford said. "I did that. He assured me. He said the mining operations were handled through a French consortium" and therefore out of the Niger government's control. Owens-Kirkpatrick, reached by phone, declined to comment. |
OK, dude.
1) Iraq did indeed go to Niger in the late 90's with the intent to expand commercial relations. The PM of Niger told Wilson that he took this to mean he wanted to buy Uranium. Niger turned him down. This, actually, is in Wilson's report to the CIA. The british intelligence files report that Saddam did go to Niger to try and buy Uranium. This information matches Wilson's report. In 02 after hearing reports that Iraq had tried to buy Uranium Cheney asked the CIA to check it out (a prudent move, don't you think). Wilson's wife persueded them to send Wilson in Feb 2002. The prior british reports from the late 90's that Wilson agreed with stating that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger had nothing to do with the forgeries.
In 2003 Wilson begins to back away from the proposed uranium purchase claim. In early 2002 newspapers began reporting that Wilson "knew" the british documents were forgeries. The US government didn't recieve the forged papers until late 2002. During the pre-war intelligence commitee hearing when questioned about his statements regarding the "forged" documents Wilson claimed that he "misspoke".
BTW, The british goverment continues, to this day, to stand behind the intelligence report that Bush based his 2003 SOTU address on. That Hussein did, in fact, try to buy uranium from Niger.
article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html
relevent bits:
" Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.
The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address. "
" The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."
"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger. "
Every intelligence agency in the world was convinced Hussein had tried to buy uranium because he had. Niger is not the only country in Africa that sells it, nor is it the only country in the world that makes it. How many other markets do you think exist for uranium? How much do you think he could buy with his oil for food profits? Do you think we'd detect an amount of bought uranium better or worse than we'd detect a facility which makes the stuff?
And finally from the Senate committee on intelligence failure, final conclusion:
Conclusion 26. To date, the Intelligence Community has not published an assessment to clarify or correct its position on whether or not Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Africa as stated in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). Likewise, neither the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) nor the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which both published assessments on possible Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium, have ever published assessments outside of their agencies which correct their previous positions.
Feel free to read the report yourself.