aren't we guilty of missing the forest when we discuss the administration's use of forged documents to bolster its case that saddam either "bought" or "sought" yellowcake from niger when the true issue is that yellowcake is so low-grade and non-threatening that george hw bush simply left 500mT of the stuff (previously purchased by saddam in the early 1980's) in iraq after the first gulf war in barrels with iaea seals? the intelligence community knew that the niger connection was a non-issue from the start and the bushies were depending on the public's irrational fears engendered by the word "uranium" overwhelming the disclosure or even investigation by the msm into the logic of saddam trying to buy more of what he already possessed and had no way to enrich!
Posted by seth stevens at October 25, 2005 03:20 AMThat's a fascinating comment, Seth. Do you have any materials that back up your assertions?
Posted by idiosynchronic at October 25, 2005 05:56 AMthank you seth (and eriposte)
one comment:
500 (metric )tons..
hmm.. where have i heard about 500 tons of yellowcake before.
could it be that the boys in the white house were mixing history and fantasy to create a new myrh.
Posted by orionATL at October 25, 2005 06:00 AMGreat comment. One additional note; the US under Reagan/Bush 41 sold Saddam and others everything from Stingers to the Bubonic Plague. We are reaping what we have sown.
Posted by tempus at October 25, 2005 06:20 AMGrtts cngrtltns r n rdr fr yr sltry jrny nt vrtl sgnfcnc thrgh mjr rrlvnc nd yr cntnng hlp twrd lbrctng th mn grtt f th lft.
[Editor: ignore=off]what's that game with dice that have words writtten on them? you know, you shake up the clear plastic case and then try to put a sentence together from the random words. i think it's called Bendito.
Posted by benjoya at October 25, 2005 06:36 AMjust in case you regret not paying for the times, don't. shorter kristof:
I find myself repulsed by the glee that some Democrats show at the possibility of Karl Rove and Mr. Libby being dragged off in handcuffs.
he's on judy's team!
Posted by benjoya at October 25, 2005 06:38 AMTodd Johnson has an exceptional post on dKos on the fact that yellowcake is nothing without extensive refining. As he said:
What has been utterly misunderstood, misrepresented, and lost amid the babble of speculation and intrigue, is that Iraq didn't need yellowcake. They'd had a million pounds of it sitting around "in country" for over a decade, but with no viable means whatsoever of making it into nuclear weapons.
A definite must-read.
Posted by Mary at October 25, 2005 06:45 AMConspiracy theory nonsense. No wonder I left the democrat party.
Posted by A Former Democrat at October 25, 2005 06:51 AMhe's on judy's team!
Yeah. I'm torn.
As a Catholic I find myself resistant to the urge to seek retribution against the Republican machine that spent 8 years trying to find a way to bring down a Democratic administration. In that sense I agree with Kristof. Seeking to send Libby and Rove to jail for such things is distasteful to me. If it can be demonstrably shown that they acted with the intent to expose Plame simply to hurt Wilson then they should be tried. If they were just grossly negligent with national security concerns in their zeal to defend the administration having them removed from their positions and having the media trumpet their incompetence would suffice.
Of course taking the high road when you're dealing with thugs and cut throat scum usually finds you ultimately face down in a puddle with a knife in your back holding an empty bag.
Like I said. Torn.
Posted by muckcat at October 25, 2005 07:03 AMTempus, forgive me. A Former Democrat "left the party". THANK GOD!
Posted by Judith at October 25, 2005 07:06 AMMuckcat, don't be torn. Gallows on the WH lawn would suffice.
Posted by Judith at October 25, 2005 07:09 AMWhat Judith said. That is a blessing, no doubt about it.
As to Somerby, he has been so sucked in by the "sought" vs. "bought" dodge, that he will NEVER have the integrity to reexamine the story in toto and see that he is chasing his own tail.
eriposte's remains the definitive explication of everything Wilson/yellowcake/Niger. Somerby was in over his head on this from the start--he extrapolates from "gotcha" (or in this case, misleading "gotcha") to multicolumn frantic tirades about Wilson.
Posted by Nash at October 25, 2005 07:18 AMEriposte,
Now that Milbank and Pincus have confirmed Wilson has lied about every aspect of his trip, don’t you think it’s time to rethink your position?
Reality is not such a scary place as you might think. Come on, join me. You might like it.
jwest, Pincus and Milbank confirm no such thing. By misreading (possibly not reading?) the Senate report, they confirm that they do not understand what happened.
It's funny, the Senate report basically confirms what Wilson has been saying, but is written in such a way as to make people claim otherwise, then people like jwest who are illiterate believe the lie.
Posted by Nash at October 25, 2005 07:31 AMThank you, Mary . . that answered up my thoughts of "Yellowcake? He already had yellowcake? I don't remember that."
And once again - I'll have what west is having. That's got to be some good shit.
Posted by idiosynchronic at October 25, 2005 07:33 AMidio, whatever u.jest is taking seems to have damaged his brain beyond repair. Best you use something else, like indictments, to lift your spirits. And you might have forgotten about Saddam's yellowcake because the Bushies left that detail out of their "case" for war.
As for Somerby, he has some kind of vendetta against Wilson, so he can't be trusted at all on this story.
Posted by iamcoyote at October 25, 2005 07:40 AMNo wonder I left the democrat party.
Yet here you are, still clinging to your supposed past. So, leave already.
(btw, pretending to be a former democrat is part of Trolling 101. Were you held back? Watch u.jest for Trolling 102 - sticking fingers in ears and going "lalalala" while flinging poo with your tail)
Posted by iamcoyote at October 25, 2005 07:45 AMToon of the Day: Yellow Cake
Posted by jjoats at October 25, 2005 07:47 AMJust once I'd like to hear a Republican admit that what was done by the GOP during the entire 8 years of the Clinton administration was a travesty of historical proportions that might, just might, have served to distract the entire nation from dealing with issues that really mattered.
Anyone?
Posted by snark at October 25, 2005 08:11 AMNo wonder I left the democrat party.
I call bullshit. No real Democrat uses the Newt-penned epithet "Democrat Party". In any event, this is the week we'll likely move past "conspiracy theory nonsense" to "conspiracy indictments".
Posted by Kilgore Trout at October 25, 2005 08:39 AMThis may have been covered in one of eriposte's copious analyses of this particular issue. But I notice that the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee "The Decision to go to War in Iraq" of 07/07/03 says in its section on "The uranium from Africa claim," paragraph 57:
"As has been widely reported, and not denied by the US Government, the CIA in February 2002 sent a retired US ambassador to Niger to investigate claims that Iraqi officials had been SEEKING to buy uranium in Niger. The ambassador reported to the CIA that the claims were false and that the documents relating to them may have been forged." (my emphasis)
This report was issued virtually simultaneously with Wilson's New York Times op-ed, so presumably this text did not include any review of that article.
But it's clear that, at a minimum, this parliamentary committee believed that Wilson's trip was evaluating the charge that Iraq had been "seeking" uranium.
I also deal with the sought/bought issue and other points from Somerby's strangely off-base view of the Plame case and surrounding issues here:
http://journals.aol.com/bmiller224/OldHickorysWeblog/entries/3431
Thanks for all your good work on researching this case for your readers.
Posted by Bruce Miller at October 25, 2005 09:12 AMEriposte,
Now that Milbank and Pincus have confirmed Wilson has lied about every aspect of his trip, don’t you think it’s time to rethink your position?
Reality is not such a scary place as you might think. Come on, join me. You might like it.
Posted by j.west at October 25, 2005 07:19 AM
*****
Could you pleas type without Dick's dick in your mouth? That's just disgusting.
Ah sick...you've got something on your chin.
Posted by thunderhawk at October 25, 2005 10:02 AMTPM is reporting that SISMI piped the forgeries directly through Hadley after being repeatedly rebuffed by the CIA, which knew they were fake.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 25, 2005 10:11 AMThe CIA announced this morning that Outer Mongolia is thinking about purchasing yellow cake. Visibly shaken by the news, President Bush has ordered all remaining White House staff to investigate, and is having lunch with Donald Rumsfeld. The menu has been classified secret. Pat Robertson has scheduled a press conference for this afternoon.
Posted by tempus at October 25, 2005 10:20 AMDavis, even if the WMD issue was trumped up, at least the neocon cabal put more efort into their pretext for war than the Great Societarian did.
The causes of war are accretions; the trigger does not make the gun or the round or the aim or the shooter. They are all there, together, awaiting the obvious gesture to proceed to the instant of execution.
Posted by Toby Petzold at October 25, 2005 11:04 AMVery poetic, Toby. I'm glad you find such art in the murder of foreigners.
Posted by dj moonbat at October 25, 2005 11:17 AMDavis, even if the WMD issue was trumped up, at least the neocon cabal put more efort into their pretext for war than the Great Societarian did.
The causes of war are accretions; the trigger does not make the gun or the round or the aim or the shooter. They are all there, together, awaiting the obvious gesture to proceed to the instant of execution.
Posted by Toby Petzold at October 25, 2005 11:04 AM
_______
Pretzold,
Aim that fucker at yourself.
Posted by God Of War at October 25, 2005 11:23 AMIf one of my children were dead in iraq because of these cocksuckers lies ... they'd have more to worry about than an indictment. life won't be easy on these scumbags.
can we get pincus and milbanks email addys? their editors already got an earful from me earlier today.
The causes of war are accretions; the trigger does not make the gun or the round or the aim or the shooter. They are all there, together, awaiting the obvious gesture to proceed to the instant of execution.
Toby: I've taken the liberty of booking you with my psychiatrist Thursday at 1:30. And I have a valium prescription to get you through until then.
Posted by tempus at October 25, 2005 12:24 PMThe White House war on Joe Wilson isn't the exception to the rule. It is the rule.
Finally, President George W. Bush is being punished for his "Politics of Payback". After five years of savage and baseless attacks on the likes of Richard Clarke, General Eric Shinseki, Paul O'Neill, Jim Jeffords, and Richard Foster, the small, mean-spirited, venal and vengeful George W. Bush is paying the price...
For the full story, see:
"Blowback: Bush, Plame and the Politics of Payback."
Posted by AvengingAngel at October 25, 2005 03:43 PM