Now turn to the front page of the June 28 [2004] Financial Times for a report from the paper's national security correspondent, Mark Huband. He describes a strong consensus among European intelligence services that between 1999 and 2001 Niger was engaged in illicit negotiations over the export of its "yellow cake" uranium ore with North Korea, Libya, Iraq, Iran, and China. The British intelligence report on this matter, once cited by President Bush, has never been disowned or withdrawn by its authors. The bogus document produced by an Italian con man in October 2002, which has caused such embarrassment, was therefore more like a forgery than a fake: It was a fabricated version of a true bill.
In now myriad comments, Pepe has disputed Saddam's possession of WMDs as "proven" by Hans Blix and the dictator-friendly UN. AA has pointed out that a couple thousand Kurds can't be wrong and so Saddam certainly had some chems a while back...
Here, Hitchens says Saddam really sent his boys to Niger in spite of what the now-exposed Wilsons say. He has gone on in other more recent essays to say his allegations have not been challenged. In the sidebar a link will send you to an archive of Hitchens' writings. I would be curious to know what Pepe thinks about this.
More here and in its links.
Monday, September 18, 2006
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3 comments:
JJ - given the state of desperation that the administration is in finding some legitimate cause for its iraqi adventure, it is safe to assume that if the new twist on this story holds water in the least bit, every neocon in the administration will be trumpetting it. Let's wait and see.
It's old. The NYT and others having been hushing it up and buying the Plame Wilson line against Bushhitlerrovecheneymussolini.
ah - a liberal media cover-up perhaps?
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