[alnick]

They can't claim Bush knew the uranium story wasn't true because the CIA didn't get the document until after the SOTU.

Dog, you need to think about this. This actually makes it even worse. And it is more insulting to Blair. But then, he's only going to spend 7 hours in Washington. I'm surprised he didn't just cancel.

But the Brits have said that their intelligence is about more than the Niger documents, that they have info independent of the Niger story. The president didn't mention Niger at all in the SOTU.

Aren't a lot of people assuming that the "16 words" refer to Niger as opposed to somewhere else in Africa?

[George W. Bush]

Aren't a lot of people assuming that the "16 words" refer to Niger as opposed to somewhere else in Africa?

I'm not. As I pointed out in my post above. Apparently, the Niger thing comes from the IAEA accusation that Niger sold 250 tons of yellowcake to Saddam in 1981-1982 (which Niger denies). I think the whole Niger thing is about U.N./IAEA incompetence and that Dim agitprop tool, Wilson, who is carrying the knife on this one.

I suspect that Niger may be telling the truth. If Saddam's yellowcake came from Niger, it might have been purchased/shipped by a third party. Let me see... Who manages all those yellowcake mines in Niger? Oh, yeah. The French!!!!!!

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...

[mware]

Batchelor and Alexander (talk show hosts on wabc radio nyc) 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.

For that reason they said they attempted to vet out the information through other sources.

A representative from Niger stationed in Italy, made up forged documents which was purchased for 2K.

Since that time the one who wrote the forgery has been recalled to Niger.

By the way Niger was a French colony with very heavy French influence.