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To: mosquitobite
'the new investigation is due to pressure from a number of democrat senators .  True?'

Pretty much true - here's some background--

Jay Rockefeller- Press release on July 11, 2003: "how did it happen that our President was allowed to mislead the American people and the world about Iraq’s nuclear program?... The Senate Intelligence Committee has been working to get to the bottom of the Niger documents since mid-March, and our larger inquiry into pre-war intelligence on Iraqi WMD will determine whether this was an isolated incident or part of a pattern of intelligence errors and distortions."

William Safire's "flock of pouting spooks at Langley" joined Rockefeller and other Dem. senators to try to pin the Niger forgery on Bush & Co. So On March 14th, (2003) Senator Jay Rockefeller, of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, formally asked Robert Mueller, the F.B.I. director, to investigate the forged documents. The FBI announced last month that it had finished a two-year inquiry and concluded that the forgeries were part of a moneymaking scheme — and not an effort to manipulate U.S. foreign policy.

Reported by MSNBC-- covering the Nov. 14, 2005 Newsweek issue - "The FBI ended a two-and-a-half-year probe into the Niger uranium documents without resolving a key mystery: who forged papers used to bolster President Bush's case for war in Iraq? The bureau announced that the documents, purportedly showing attempts by Saddam Hussein's government to purchase yellowcake uranium, were concocted for financial gain rather than to influence U.S. foreign policy. But Sen. Jay Rockefeller, vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee, had questions. Without more info about the "thoroughness" of the bureau's efforts, he said, "I cannot make a judgment on the accuracy of the conclusions."  http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9938998/site/newsweek/

The Newsweek-MSNBC analysis yields more grandstanding and prophecy:
"This is such a high-profile issue for a lot of reasons, and we think it's important to make sure there aren't lingering questions," said an aide to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee. "There's always a chance that you do a little more investigating and you uncover something you hadn't seen before or you hadn't realized." A senior federal law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, confirmed late Friday that the bureau (FBI) had reopened the inquiry. (L.A. Times last saturday)

Federal officials familiar with the case say investigators might examine whether the forgeries were instigated by U.S. citizens who advocated an invasion of Iraq or by members of the Iraqi National Congress — the group led by Ahmad Chalabi that worked closely with Bush administration officials in the buildup to the war. But the senior federal official said, "I don't expect the results to be any different. I think the answer is going to be that [Martino] wasn't acting in behalf of any government or intelligence agency. This guy was trying to peddle this to whoever he could."

So it has always been the Democrats (Jay Rockefeller the cheerleader) pushing for Nigergate inquiries.  The call to get the FBI involved looks like another attempt to turn the Nigergate conclusions into (yellow) mush now that the Italians are pointing fingers at the French as being responsible for Nigergate. Nigergate has gotten out of control for the pouting spooks and the Dims. The Italians say the renewed FBI investigation  could backfire on the liberals but presumably the FBI will set up a firewall if things get too hot for the Dims.  The FBI might even be able to point it at Bush like they got Nixon years ago.  [A few weeks ago I posted a copy of Director Mueller's internal FBI News release stating that Inspector Fitzgerald (Fitz Magoo, Fitz Clouseau, Wunderklutz...) was being considered as next FBI Director and Patrick Fitz was reported as not saying no.]
11 posted on 12/05/2005 8:34:24 AM PST by MilleniumBug
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To: MilleniumBug

"Sen. Jay Rockefeller, vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee, had questions. Without more info about the "thoroughness" of the bureau's efforts, he said, "I cannot make a judgment on the accuracy of the conclusions."

Nice BS argument, Jay. Give it up. No matter how many times you investigate this thing, you're not going to be able to pin it on the Bush Administration.


17 posted on 12/05/2005 6:34:38 PM PST by popdonnelly
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