<font size=4>Joe Wilson flip-flop: Wilson now says Iraq DID seek uranium from Niger, Africa
This bombshell is buried on page A-16 of today’s Washington Post:
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Command Post Blog command-post.org
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It was Saddam Hussein’s information minister, Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf, often referred to in the Western press as “Baghdad Bob,” who approached an official of the African nation of Niger in 1999 to discuss trade — an overture the official saw as a possible effort to buy uranium.
That’s according to a new book [by] Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador who was sent to Niger by the CIA in 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq had been trying to buy enriched “yellowcake” uranium. Wilson wrote that he did not learn the identity of the Iraqi official until this January, when he talked again with his Niger source.
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Previously, Wilson had scathingly accused the Bush Administration of having “twisted” the underlying intelligence. Wilson previously indicated that he disputed the claim that Iraq had tried to get uranium from Niger, Africa. See, for example, the story from the July 17, 2003 edition of TIME magazine:<font size=3>
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Wilson says he refuted the forgeries’ central allegation that Niger had been negotiating a sale of uranium to Iraq.
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After he submitted his report in March 2002, Wilson says, his interest in the topic lay dormant until the State of the Union address in January 2003. In his speech, the President cited a British report claiming that Hussein’s government had sought uranium in Africa.
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Wilson now essentially confirms that Iraq DID seek uranium from Niger, Africa - just like the President said in the State of the Union Address.
Will Joe Wilson apologize to the President and to the general public for his prior false, inflammatory remarks? Will the mainstream media run this story with the same breathless excitement as Joe Wilson’s previous claims? I suppose we all know the answers to these questions.
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This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.
UPDATE:
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The underlying story in the Washington Post, quoted above, is not a model of clarity. And it doesn’t even mention the firestorm that erupted over Bush’s “16 words” in his January 2003 State of the Union Address. (Perhaps the Post’s placement of today’s story on its interior page A-16 was meant as a pithy inside joke).
The bottom line, however, is that Joe Wilson appears to now take for granted that Iraq (indeed, our beloved “Baghdad Bob” from Iraq) WAS trying to get uranium from Niger, Africa. Certainly, Wilson does not appear to now be disputing this basic proposition.
Yet, in mid to late 2003, Wilson and the mainstream press spent many weeks worth of news cycles breathlessly talking about Bush’s “16 words” in the State of the Union Address. These “16 words” were to the effect that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger, Africa. Now WILSON HIMSELF is the source CONFIRMING that Baghdad Bob did exactly that.
I think that Wilson has tried to underplay this in his book, and certainly the Washington Post has tried to underplay this in both the language and the placement of the story. But the above facts are the basic facts that one must work with - and the basic flip-flop that Wilson has undergone. |
