Senate Intelligence Report, yellowcake and Joseph Wilson's lies
On February 26, 2002, Wilson arrived in Niger. He spoke only with former Nigerian officials (the former Prime Minister and the former Minister of Mines) and with the US Ambassador, Owens-Kirkpatrick, and on that limited "investigation" concluded that "there was nothing to the story'. The Ambassador recalls him saying, "[he] had reached the same conclusions that the embassy had reached, that it was highly unlikely that anything was going on." What Wilson did find out, which he revealed in a private meeting in his home, with his wife (who he insists was uninvolved) present, was that the former Prime Minister had revealed that a "businessman approached him and insisted [he] meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss 'expanding commercial relations' between Niger and Iraq. The former PM "interpreted [this] to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales." The PM also stated that the meeting took place but that he dropped the matter "due to UN sanctions on Iraq." The former Minister of Mines told Wilson that "an Iranian delegation was interested in purchasing 400 tons of yellowcake from Niger in 1998", but he claimed no contract was ever signed.
If nothing else, this proves the Iraqis were at least trying to obtain yellowcake in large quantities, and that should have been alarming to anyone who was aware of it. (Wilson, of course, dismissed it as "nothing".)
The report goes on to reveal that Wilson admitted to being the source for a Washington Post article, "CIA Did Not Share Doubt on Iraq Data; Bush Used Report of Uranium Bid". When questioned by the Committee about his knowledge of certain details which he could not possibly have known, Wilson told the Committee he may have "mispoken" to the reporter when he said the documents were forged.
So what we have with Joseph Wilson is a man who has lied for partisan reasons, created a controversy when there was none and written a book to profit from the mess. Will the press now hound Wilson as they hounded Bush about his "sixteen words"? Only time will tell, but past experience doesn't encourage us to think that the story will get anywhere near the same attention that Wilson's lies have gotten.
http://tinyurl.com/7k2cw
And what everyone forgets is, in those famous 16 words, that's all Bush SAID. That they had TRIED to obtain it. He never said they actually managed to buy it, no one has said that. Of course, we do know that Saddam had 500 tons of uranium at Tuwaitha, but as far as I know, no one's ascertained where it came from.