CIA didn't get disputed documents until February 2003 after Bush claim

Boston Globe ^ | 7-16-03 | John J. Lumpkin

[mikenola]

WASHINGTON (AP) When the Bush administration issued its pre-war claims that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa, the CIA had not yet obtained the documents that served as a key foundation for the allegation and later turned out to be forged, U.S. officials say.

[OldFriend]

Consider the source and notice the spin.

Very doubtful that Tenet tried to pin this on the President, as alluded to in this article.

[George W. Bush]

I got that from the resource thread that backhoe made up and posted last night. One of the articles had the table of Saddam's nuclear suppliers.

I think it was about 450 barrels in each of two shipments, one in '81 and the other in '82. But don't quote me.

[George W. Bush]

Your two comments made me realize that there were still thinking persons at FR. You two, quite simply, 'get it'. Thanks for restoring my faith.

[Ethyl]

You can connect the dots for yourself. But if true, it would tie in with Chirac selling Saddam the Osirak reactors at about the same time. My, what a strange series of sheer coincidences that would seem to be...

Does anybody else remember in the first few weeks after we took Bahgdad that the Army or Marines found a place that was soo hot with nuclear material that they had to shut it down? There were many rooms very "hot" underground. Then all the Iraqis came and dumped out the barrels of "yellow cake" and used the barrels for storage? What ever happened about that? There seem to be a lot of diss-connects that happened in the early days.

[deport]

Not necessarily a problem,

---

Agree .... but what did Tenet take the hit for? The 16 words weren't a lie and were never wrong but Tenet issued the following words in a press release.... Thus he's adding fuel to the fire and basically saying the CIA screwed the pooch on this one.... thus the continuing fallout.....

From Tenet's statement....

First, CIA approved the President's State of the Union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my Agency. And third, the President had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound. These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President.
End Snip

[unspun]

Good "breaking news" -- excellent news, with a solid ring of truth that speaks for the veracity of the Bush Administration.

[PhiKapMom]

Anything dealing with this case is Breaking News on here IMHO!

So the CIA gets the info AFTER the State of the Union but it is Pres Bush's fault that it was in the State of the Union even though they didn't have the information until after? This gets better and better!

Think a steam roller is head for the 9 (10 with Hillary) RAT idiots running for President and Pres Bush is driving it with VP Cheney right beside him!

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for the ping! This whole deal gets stranger and stranger. All of the RAT candidates have gotten on board the Bush is lying train -- wonder if they are going to start jumping off.

Remember Hillary with the headlines after 9/11 -- What did Bush know and when did he know it? Senator Nickles went on the floor of the Senate and leveled her.

Wonder what Senators are going to get the privilege of leveling the RAT candidates from the Senate this time?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Let the libs bang this story to death. The average American isn't buying this "Bush lied" garbage and the Rats shoot themselves in the foot every time they try to give the story legs.

What's it like to be a Demorat these days? They're sitting around wanting the economy to tank and the war on terrorism to fail miserably. When they deny it, it's like trying to hide a full-size pink elephant in the living room closet. It's laughable that they think they'll win with this garbage. Where's their solution to anything? What's their vision of what America should be? (People can only guess at their vision and it isn't pretty.)

[George W. Bush]

All of the RAT candidates have gotten on board the Bush is lying train -- wonder if they are going to start jumping off.

The key word in the Dim talking points is 'pattern'. Look for that word. It will be the key concept in their accusations (which they can later deny are accusations if necessary). They are trying to implant the word 'pattern' in the soccer moms.

[George W. Bush]

Can you tell me how much "room" 250 tons would take up? Saying it was all together?

I looked back for a reprise.

Here's backhoe's resource thread: The Uranium Files- Iraq, Mr. Bush... and more-

The figures attributed to the IAEA source are from this thread: Let Them Eat Yellowcake - Reflections On A Failed Political Smear. I didn't really buy into the whole article but thought the IAEA figures were interesting. Here is the excerpt:

The following from: Fact Sheet: Iraq’s Nuclear Weapon Programme – International Atomic Energy Agency, 25 April 2002

1. Imported 4,006 kg of natural uranium and 6,005 kg of depleted uranium (DU) from Italy in 1979

2. Imported 1,767 kg low enriched uranium (LEU) from Italy in 1982

3. Imported almost 50 kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Russia and France

4. Procured 429 drums containing 138,098 kg yellowcake from Portugal in 1980

5. Procured 487 drums containing 148,348 kg yellowcake from Portugal in 1982

6. Procured 432 drums containing 137,435 kg of yellowcake from Niger in 1981

7. Procured 426 drums containing 139,409 kg of yellowcake from Niger in 1982

8. Imported 24,260 kg of uranium dioxide from Brazil between 1981-82

[Dolphy]

...had a guy on that said that the French intelligence agency gave the info to UK and told them to please not share it with the US because they would be in trouble with Chirac.

This, so far, becomes the closest thing to an explanation for the current situation. The Brits tell the US off the record of the French intelligence, we believe it but can't verify it, Bush considers it too significant not to mention, and the language in the speech is so crafted. The only thing it doesn't explain is why Tenet made his statement unless it is to protect sources and make the US look like we didn't have any other information.

The article says that...

French diplomatic sources told AP on Wednesday the French government never possessed the documents but did have suspicions Iraq was seeking nuclear material from Niger.

I don't suppose the French turned over any of the evidence that made them suspicious to the UN or IAEA. Maybe it's not just the Dems who are about to take a fall as the WMD story in Iraq unfolds.

[_bar]

Am I the only one that is wondering why this information did not come to light before now. Doesn't it seem that the democrats and the media sat on this story until President Bush went to Africa. It seems conspiratorial to me.

[George W. Bush]

Does anybody else remember in the first few weeks after we took Bahgdad that the Army or Marines found a place that was soo hot with nuclear material that they had to shut it down? There were many rooms very "hot" underground. Then all the Iraqis came and dumped out the barrels of "yellow cake" and used the barrels for storage? What ever happened about that? There seem to be a lot of diss-connects that happened in the early days.

Yes, sounds like that al-Taiwaitha lab. Apparently, the guards and staff fled, probably fearing we'd bomb it. The place was well-known to IAEA and they had cataloged its contents in previous inspections. A lot of the material used for research and the waste were there. IAEA claimed they had documented the types and quantities stored in various places. It might even be true 'cause they really like sticking labels on things and producing tabular reports that nobody reads. At any rate, because of all the waste, there were a lot of 'hot' locations there. Kind of like our old Rocky Flats facility but worse. Not lethal to visit but you had to limit your time there if unprotected. So, after the staff fled, Iraqis were running all over the country trying to grab anything not nailed down. Apparently, there has been a shortage of containers to store water as it was in short supply before the war and the Iraqi civilians expected it would get much worse (and it did). So they grabbed a bunch of barrels from there (and air conditioners, furniture, etc.). They dumped waste out of some of them and then supposedly used them for storing drinking water. There was a fuss over trying to find them so they wouldn't kill themselves by drinking irradiated water but I never heard if they found the barrels or not.

At any rate, first reports from a junior officer who grabbed the entire facility and stopped the looting was that it was very 'hot' in there. There were never any reports from there during those days by any scientist or weapons inspector with adequate equipment. Just the reports of our young commander (a lieutenant or captain, I think) who was using their rather elementary radiation detection gear to see how 'hot' various spots were.

But the media, led by Fox, jumped all over these early reports even though the military command in Qatar was pretty reserved. After all, everyone had gotten really tired of the daily or hourly reports that we-finally-found-the-WMD only to have it fall through again.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[skr]

"But that's part of the problem you see.... Using unvetted info that couldn't be documented at the time....."

The forged document isn't the only evidence upon which the British are basing their claim. The attack dogs conveniently leave that out whenever they bring up their accusations.

[George W. Bush]

It seems conspiratorial to me.

I agree. It was a conspiracy of stupidity involving Tenet and some other players in the administration. Essentially, it had to be some combination of Cheney (I hate to even think he was in on it), Powell, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, NSC staff. Since Condi Rice immediately tried to limit the damage, I can only conclude that she wasn't in on it or wasn't informed as to exactly what Tenet would say. Certainly, she's made it clear that she's backing the British intel claims. To me, this is one of maybe a half-dozen things she's done that demonstrates that she merits her position. By comparison, Powell hasn't done anything that impresses me. Ever.

The bumbling nature of this Tenet matter is troubling, not so much for its actual content as that it was so incompetent and politically inept as to raise questions about the ability of this administration to handle themselves well. It just looks bad. And contrary to what others have said, it insulted Blair and our British friends.

Of course, it's a slow news month so the DNC has to make some splash so their media allies can give their candidates some free face time to spew the DNC talking points ('pattern') under the guise of news. And summer is a slow news time.

[George W. Bush]

The forged document isn't the only evidence upon which the British are basing their claim.

Did the British ever stake their claim on the forged document? Even partially? I don't think I've seen that before. There are accusations that they did but I haven't seen any proof that this was even a part of their intel.

[concerned about politics]

They've moved on to the Bush exit strategy now. They say he messed it up. Others Demand Bush tell the truth about why he attacked Iraq! Of course, they backed Clinton when he tried to take over the world, but that's beside the point. Sheesh!

Good news if you haven't heard it yet:Pentagon Bombshell: U.S. Uncovers WMD Document 'Mother Lode' (Newsmax) The Pentagon's chief weapons inspector David Kay has uncovered what is being described as a "mother lode" of documents in Iraq detailing Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction program.

[concerned about politics]

AND...PS.....

Clinton-Era Reports Cited Saddam-bin Laden Ties.....Just weeks after Clinton bombed the daylights out of suspected hideaways for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, he used his January 1999 State of the Union Address to warn America about both bin Laden and Saddam, mentioning the two terror kingpins almost in the same breath.......

"For nearly a decade, Iraq has defied its obligations to destroy its weapons of terror and the missiles to deliver them. America will continue to contain Saddam, and we will work for the day when Iraq has a government worthy of its people."

[Djarum]

The issue is that France shared intelligence with the UK and refuses to allow the UK to share it with us.

What if France forged this intel to discredit us? Who else would be motivated to do this?