He pretty well trashes the Novak argument.
Not exactly. There was evidence (humint) that Iraq asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger (and also the Congo). The report says so. And the Democrats on the committee did not dissent from this finding. It's obvious now that the CIA interpreted the humint through the prism of believing that Saddam had an active, ongoing WMD program, which apparently was not the case, but that doesn't mean that Iraq did not seek to buy uranium. (And by the way, the Brits did disclose some of their separate evidence in the Butler Report, cited at Belgravia Dispatch.
(http://www.belgraviadispatch.com/)
As for The LAT article notes that Plame's bosses at the CIA continue to insist that the idea to send Wilson was not hers, but rather theirs. the report itself says,
The CPD reports that officer told Committee staff that the former Ambassador's wife "offered up his name" and a memorandum to the Deputy Chief of the CPD on February 12, 2002, from the former Ambassador's wife says: "my husband has good relations with both the PM and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could shed light on this kind of activity.
Wilson said flat out she had nothing to do with it. John, if you want to go down with Marshall on this, go ahead, but frankly it's been hashed to death and Marshall just looks ridiculous. |
