GMontag's Journal: Time for me to speak up: the biggest load of crap this year.

This Niger yellow cake "controversy" is the biggest load of crap issue this year, but we still have a few months left for another big nothing to float to the top.

First, let's take a look at a short timeline:

11 October 2002
The Congress (both Houses) votes authorization for the President to take care of Iraq. At this point, all intelligence committees have been briefed endlessly, through three Presidential Administrations, a period exceeding twelve years, on the state of affairs in Iraq and any Iraqi security threats (confirmed or supposed) to the USA.

Not one member of any intelligence committee ever voiced a concern that they were being lied to about the totality of the case. Not one member voiced concern that any information was being fabricated over the course of twelve-plus years.

No mention by the President nor any Executive Branch Official has been made publicly, nor reported off the record, of Niger being an issue.

The case to go to war and remove the Ba'ath party from power in Iraq has been made on the basis of Iraqi support of international terrorism both financially and with training facilities within their borders. Also, the case was made that they had continued to violate United Nations Security Councel resolutions, that ANY MEMBER STATE may enforce without further consultation with the UN.

These violations included nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs along with unaccounted chemical and biological weapons stocks that were supposed to be destroyed. Much of the accounting for these weapons was provided by Iraq itself.

28 January 2003

The President, in the State of the Union Address voices this line:

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

The nation of Niger is not mentioned anyplace in the speech. The sentence is also factually correct on every level. The British government is still standing behind their information that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium from a producer in Africa.

Departing from the timeline, at some point some forged document mentioning Niger got into the mix and becomes public. Newsflash: this was not the only piece of information that was relied on in stating that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from a supplier in Africa.

One forged document does not a fabrication make. It makes the forged document and any conclusions or suspicions drawn from it false, until the rest of the information is tied together.

As the President NEVER used Niger nor attempts to purchase uranium from Africa as an arguement to go to war. The point is moot anyway.

Recently the CIA Director said that the sentence should not have been approved for the speech, which may be true, but that still does not make it a lie either.

At least this administration IS answering the critics, quickly and, by all appearances, honestly. As opposed to some of the previous administrations who just swept questions like this under the rug, no matter how much this non-issue deserves the same treatment.

The Democrats are trying to have their "cake"

[TheConfusedOne]

and turn it into a controvery too. :-D

The biggest and most annoying of the drum beaters has to be Alterman. He's been blogging every day about how this giant moron of a president lied to everyone. (I guess the irony of being fooled by a moron escapes him.)

You think you could go over to Altercation and post your summary and see how he attempts to duck it?

Problem

[Cyberdyne]

The British information came from "another country" (reported to be France). As a former French colony, Niger's uranium mines are regulated by the French government.

<Conspiracy theory mode>Now, why would the French government be trying to discredit (by releasing fake 'evidence') the idea of Iraq buying uranium from their mines in Niger? Trying to pre-empt the truth?</Conspiracy theory mode>

Large amounts of 'yellow cake' were found, near the Osirak reactor - for some reason, that story has go

Re:Problem

[GMontag]

True enough, but the fact that Niger is a major supplier of Uranium oxide and located in Africa still means nothing in this whole deal.

To boot, some Italin secret service documents, purchased from a Nigerian, seem to be fake too. Still a big "so what".

Re:Problem

[Red Warrior]

The only question is, did the Italians have to give him a bank account number to wire his funds too, so that he could avoid the taxes?

Re:Problem

[GMontag]

http://www.danirak.dk/english/nuclearlooting.html

Also, oh yes!

[GMontag]

Umm, this is the first tiem the President was seriously accused, by the Democratic leadership, of lieing in an effort to put troops in danger.

The "lie" he is falsly accused of repeating was given to him by a Clinton appointee.

Yep, some want their yellow cake and eat it too.

Why are they harping on this?

[buffer-overflowed]

And what relevance does it have anyway?

There are so many better things to nail Bush and the Republican party to the wall for, this is just a nitpicky little detail.

When you control the majority stake in the government EVERYTHING is your fault.

Re:Why are they harping on this?

[buffer-overflowed]

Oh wait, I got it. If the two sides attack themselves and each other in this manner then none of the really bad stuff they both do comes out.

Makes perfect sense.

Re:Why are they harping on this?

[jcast]

When you control the majority stake in the government EVERYTHING is your fault.

Um, no. America may not be a free country any more, but there's still plenty of private action left.

Yellow Cake

[Infinite Curiosity]

Not really interested in topic - but think you are a really fine writer. Keep it up!