That's pure revisionist history. I'm shocked it took more
than 5 days before anyone challenged that thoroughly
discredited myth.
No matter how you want to spin it, Bush didn't lie.
The British Gov't to this day stands behind their intelligence
on this. The Senate Intelligence Committee also reported we
had intelligence to support that statement too.
Both reports have been public for more than a year.
****
Both a bipartisan report of the U.S. Senate Committee on
Intelligence and a British investigation of prewar
intelligence have confirmed that when Bush uttered those
famous 16 words in a 5,400-word State of the Union, his
statement was "well-founded" based on intelligence that
was then, and is now, credible.
****
"It is accepted by all parties that Iraqi officials
visited Niger in 1999. The British government had
intelligence from several different sources indicating
that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring
uranium. Since uranium comprises almost three-quarters of
Niger's exports, the intelligence was credible."
****
"We conclude also that the statement in President Bush's
State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that 'The
British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa' was well-
founded."
****
Was Prime Minister Tony Blair also lying when he told the British Parliament in 2003:
"In the 1980s, Iraq purchased somewhere in the region of
200 or more tons of uranium from Niger. The evidence that
we had that the Iraq government had gone back to try to
purchase further amounts of uranium from Niger did not
come from so-called forged documents; they came from
separate intelligence."
****
[T]he Senate Select Committee on Intelligence later determined:
[Wilson's] intelligence report indicated that former
Nigerien Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki was unaware of any
contracts that had been signed between Niger and any
rogue states for the sale of yellowcake while he was
Prime Minister (1997-1999) or Foreign Minister (1996-
1997). Mayaki said that if there had been any such
contract during his tenure, he would have been aware of
it. Mayaki said, however, that in June 1999,(REDACTED)
businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet
with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial
relations" between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence
report said that Mayaki interpreted "expanding commercial
relations" to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss
uranium yellowcake sales. The intelligence report also
said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let
the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq."
Mayaki did not need telepathy to make this deduction. The CIA factbook shows that Niger has four exports: livestock, cowpeas, onions, and uranium. It takes a great deal of imagination and a certain degree of obtuseness to believe that Saddam Hussein would send a secret, back-channel negotiating team to get his hands on Nigerien cowpeas.
****
Only one export from Niger was subject to UN sanctions - yellowcake (uranium).
Message 21833577
paragraph 490 - 499
butlerreview.org.uk
weeklystandard.com
globalsecurity.org
cia.gov
