The panel found that the CIA has not fully investigated possible efforts by Iraq to buy uranium in Niger to this day, citing reports from a foreign service and the U.S. Navy about uranium from Niger destined for Iraq and stored in a warehouse in Benin.
The agency did not examine forged documents that have been widely cited as a reason to dismiss the purported effort by Iraq until months after it obtained them. The panel said it still has "not published an assessment to clarify or correct its position on whether or not Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Africa."
Now here is the question: Did the CIA bureaucracy refrain from following up on the yellow-cake investigation so as not to help the Bush administration to support the war against Iraq? What other reason is there to avoid checking out the facts behind Iraq's efforts to purchase uranium? Especially after Libya/Kadaffi turned over all the evidence of its nuclear programs (reportedly conducted in league with Iran, North Korea and IRAQ)! Seems to me, those in the CIA behind all this, including the investigation of the "outing" of Plame were motivated by anti-Bush politics. Any thoughts, anyone?
The story of the senate intellegence panels findings did start on the front page. It is not at all uncommon for a front page story to spawn other stories on the inside page where the front page story is continued, as is the case today with Sue Schmidt's article. Effectively, her's is a continuation of the front page story.