nwrd t Syr.
[Editor: ignore=off]Mary sez of Mr. McGuire:
[A]s befits someone who is uncomfortable with the story being exposed, the excerpts he pulls from the report allows him to declaim: "See, see! Bush must have believed the Niger claim was true because all reasonable people believed it was true!"
This "but EVERYBODY was wrong" line is so tired. First, of course, not everybody was wrong. Second, a lot of the people who were wrong got it wrong because people were lying to them. Third, and most importantly, even if we all were wrong about the Iraqi WMD programs, we were in the middle of straightening out those misconceptions--with the able assistance of Blix and Al Baradei--when Bush decided to go to war, rather than be proven wrong.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 13, 2005 05:50 AMMary,
Thanks for the mention of my series. The evidence that the whole thing was about Niger and that there were numerous voices within the Bush admin that considered the claim dubious -- before and after the claim was made -- is distributed through the SSCI report and many of the news reports quoting Bush admin officials.
For example:
1. The positions of the CIA, INR/State before and after the SOTU and the actual wording of the conclusion in the SSCI report:
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004970.php
2. The publicly recorded statements by numerous Bush admin officials - most of which the SSCI report conveniently ignored:
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004851.php
3. The tell-tale evidence in the SSCI report that the WH (or official close to it) tried to distort the views of the CIA in order to introduce the uranium claim:
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004975.php
dj_moonbat, Dubya and the posse undoubtedly knew that their "reason" for attacking Iraq was bogus, as you point out. They certainly didn't want the UN inspection teams to confirm that Hussein's declaration of December 2002 was correct.
What confirms that they knew the WMD info was bogus was that they decided to launch the attack into Iraq before the US Army was deployed according to plan. Remember that 4th Infrantry division which was supposed to have attacked from Turkey into northern Iraq, thereby guaranteeing snatching up all of the Iraqi high command by coup de main? Didn't happen, did it? Condi, Rummy, Dick and the Dummy couldn't wait for just a little more persuasion to be applied with the Turks, to guarantee the ability of the 4th Infantry to move. Only their knowledge that their lie about WMD was about to be exposed explains it. They willingly put American troopers lives in harms way and the entire Iraqi opertaion at risk to avoid being shown to be liars.
Posted by PrahaPartizan at October 13, 2005 06:06 AMConsider the source...Tom Maguire is still peddling the idea that Joe Wilson and his wife will be indicted just because that is what he's wishing will happen.
Like Bushco before him, Maguire cherry picks his facts based on one questionably credible source (and incomplete report) just to write a highly misleading post that fits his preconceived desired opinion/answer. Good to see you call him out on his bs, because this is just what he is selling with that post of his.
Posted by emal at October 13, 2005 06:42 AMLook,the guilty parties here are two: The GOPers for knowingly lying us into a war, and the Senate Dems for going along with them out of pure political fear.
Posted by T2 at October 13, 2005 07:42 AMEmal,
Why do you continue to ignore the fact that Valerie was a WMD expert at the CIA and Judy Miller is a reporter specializing in WMD?
Washington is not that big of a town. Don’t you think it’s a possibility that there was some contact previous to the op-ed piece between the two (or three if you throw in Joe).
Don’t you think it’s a possibility that there was some contact previous to the op-ed piece between the two (or three if you throw in Joe).
Then don't you think they would have just said so and been done with it all long ago?
Posted by ann at October 13, 2005 08:22 AMann,
I'm sorry. I don't understand your post.
well if it isn't our resident nazi, west..still out to "catapault the propaganda" for your hero, the chimp? Why do you hate America so much west? why are you a traitor..you are a nazi just like goebbels...
Posted by headxray at October 13, 2005 08:47 AM"And, fortunately, the good guys won one when Patrick Fitzpatrick was named the prosecutor in this case."
Must be another case.
Posted by degustibus at October 13, 2005 09:05 AMgusty, you know something about fitzgerald we don't? share it with the class, won't you?
Posted by benjoya at October 13, 2005 10:30 AMJudy Miller is a reporter specializing in WMD...Posted by j.west
Strange specialist, one who gets everything wrong. You must read her religiously.
We mustn't forget that it was not only Joe Wilson who debunked the Niger yellowcake claim. While in Niger in February 2002, US Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick told Wilson that she had already concluded that the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq were unfounded. She told Wilson “she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington.”
Also, Four-Star Marine General Carlton W. Fulford Jr., deputy commander of the US European Command, traveled to Niger in late February 2002 to investigate the security of Niger's uranium and to remind Niger's president of the need to keep a close eye on its ore deposits. The trip was separate from, and independent of, Wilson's mission, which occurs at about the same time. On February 24, Fulford joined US ambassador to Niger, Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, at a meeting with Niger's President Mamadou Tandja. He explained the importance of keeping Niger's ore deposits secure. Fulford's investigation concluded that Niger's uranium was safely in the hands of a French consortium and that there is little risk that the material will end up in the wrong hands. These findings are passed on to General Joseph Ralston who provides them to General Richard B. Myers.
cooperativeresearch.org