We're still missing the forger for Rathergate. Is forgery in or something?
There's an old movie with Vincent Price. He becomes a monk to get into an archives to alter a record. He has access to the original ink and parchment, changes the pages in the original archive and returns to America with his duplicate. His messup was that the person he was promoting as this "owner" of Arizona has a hidden past.
Who the hell is forging stuff to bring down the Whitehouse??
The Butler Report affirmed what the British government had said about the Niger uranium story back in 2003, and specifically endorsed what Bush said as well.
By extension, 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 recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” was well-founded.
From the Senate Committee:
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported July 7, 2004 that the CIA had received reports from a foreign government (not named, but probably Britain) that Iraq had actually concluded a deal with Niger to supply 500 tons a year of partially processed uranium ore, or "yellowcake." That is potentially enough to produce 50 nuclear warheads.
The Senate report said the CIA then asked a "former ambassador" to go to Niger and report. That is a reference to Joseph Wilson -- who later became a vocal critic of the President's 16 words. The Senate report said Wilson brought back denials of any Niger-Iraq uranium sale, and argued that such a sale wasn't likely to happen. But the Intelligence Committee report also reveals that Wilson brought back something else as well -- evidence that Iraq may well have wanted to buy uranium.
Wilson reported that he had met with Niger's former Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki, who said that in June 1999 he was asked to meet with a delegation from Iraq to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between the two countries.
Based on what Wilson told them, CIA analysts wrote an intelligence report saying former Prime Minister Mayki "interpreted 'expanding commercial relations' to mean that the (Iraqi) delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales." In fact, the Intelligence Committee report said that "for most analysts" Wilson's trip to Niger "lent more credibility to the original Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports on the uranium deal."
He (the intelligence officer) said he judged that the most important fact in the report was that the Nigerian officials admitted that the Iraqi delegation had traveled there in 1999, and that the Nigerian Prime Minister believed the Iraqis were interested in purchasing uranium, because this provided some confirmation of foreign government service reporting.
Both the US and British investigations make clear that some forged Italian documents, exposed as fakes soon after Bush spoke, were not the basis for the British intelligence Bush cited, or the CIA's conclusion that Iraq was trying to get uranium.
I think the title of this thread tells it all, I don't believe it is a question any longer. I just pray that Fitzgerald's interview with the Italian authorities in Rome was fruitful.
See post #63.
French Intel was investigating reports of uranium smuggling in Niger, and obtained documents that indicated it was happening. They asked their agent to obtain more documents, which he did with the aid of the Niger embassy. The new documents, though, were obvious forgeries, using signatures of people no longer in office. Obviously, the embassy officials would know who was and wasn't in office in Niger, as would French Intel for that matter.
The fake documents were passed to CIA. When, later, Bush mentioned uranium smuggling, the French and Wilson both announced that his comment was based on forged documents, forged documents that we know were commissioned and passed to us by the French and by Niger embassy people.
How would Wilson know about the fake documents, which were in CIA control?
This should smell to anyone like a setup.
Of course, there is more, in the fact that Iraq really had made overtures to the Niger government concerning uranium, and furthermore, this was no secret at all. Wilson knew it, but left it out of his public statements.
So the French (and perhaps CIA itself) used fake documents to discredit a story that was, after all, true. Iraq really had tried to obtain uranium from Niger. And, furthermore, when Libya "surrendered" after the Iraq war, and gave up its nuclear program, we found that its uranium had come, under the table, from Niger. Meaning that Niger and France were indeed involved in illicit uranium smuggling.
Which means the original French investigation of the affair was not for the purpose of uncovering it, but for the purpose of uncovering leaks and stopping them. Wilson's trip to Niger was part of this operation.
I hear Sandy Burglar has become adept in archive duties ;).
Actually, they were "holographs" -- hand-drawn copies of purported originals. Not technically "forgeries", as there was no intent to represent them as originals (or xerographic copies of originals).