[oceanview]

the word (john loftus) is that the french forged the documents. they knew the brits had solid evidence regarding this (which is still true), so they planted this "big lead" as a poison pill, knowing that when this one piece of evidence (the papers) was shown to be forged it would discredit the entire story, even the good stuff.

[oceanview]

to add to that, the french were in the chain between iraq and niger, this is why they planted the poison pill.