The Niger uranium story just won't go away. The Times' Nicholas Kristof, who's been on the "cooked intelligence" beat for months now, says a picture is emerging that:
... the White House, eager to spice up the State of the Union address, recklessly resurrected the discredited Niger tidbit. The Central Intelligence Agency objected, and then it and the National Security Council negotiated a new wording, attributing it all to the Brits.
So who's behind the "spicing up," or, as the Brits would say, the "sexing up" of the SOTU address?
Kristof points the finger at Vice President Cheney, as do the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, who are calling for Cheney's resignation over the matter.
Well, of course it's Cheney. And not just because he was hawkish on Iraq, or that he kicked off the Iraq War 2.0 product launch last fall, or that he was the main pitchman for the bogus aluminum tubes story, or that he told that bullshit on Meet the Press about how Saddam had "reconstituted nuclear weapons."
No, it's also because he's got previous experience lying to get America into war against Iraq.
Actually, I don't know whether to file this under lying, forgetfulness, or just plain idiocy, but check out this whopper from W yesterday:
The larger point is did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in.
WTF?! Perhaps even W has forgotten why we launched this dumb war.
posted by dackShhhh. Revisionist historian at work.
Posted by: Steve on July 15, 2003 08:22 AMBush is a neocon puppet. When he goes off the script of Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz, he gets into trouble.
Posted by: Frida on July 15, 2003 10:32 AMUN inspectors:
Wouldnt let them IN???
Okay. I thought they were there. And that they were unceremoniously yanked out prior to the invasion. What did I miss?
Posted by: littleboo on July 15, 2003 01:04 PMFacts are just the place to START from.....
History belongs to the victors!
Posted by: Russ on July 15, 2003 08:31 PMNow just a minute - "The larger point is did Kim Jong-Il have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in."
Perhaps W got Iraq and North Korea confused to the tune of 500,000 troops...
Posted by: Dave on July 16, 2003 08:11 AMNorth Korea, Iraq -- we just made a wrong turn somewhere, that must be it. What's that sign up ahead? Next Exit Liberia?!?
The W. Worldwide War Tour is COMING TO ROCK YOUR WORLD!
Posted by: Jeff on July 16, 2003 08:33 AMBush seems to good at stringing several true statements together in order to form a
true-soundling lie:
- It was true (in GW1 ) that Saddam had a WMD program
- It was true (say, in 1996) that we (the UN) gave Saddam a chance to let inspectors in
- It's true (say, in 1998) that Saddam refused.
What makes it a lie is simply that Bush condenses several true statements together as if
they happened over a short period of time. But parsed separately, each statement is true.
Actually, UN inspectors *were* let in 1998, and- just like this time- made a speedy exit for their safety due to an imminent US attack.
Posted by: OF on July 17, 2003 11:30 AMFrankly, I'm surprised we haven't found any WMD in Iraq yet. I mean, after all, we have the receipts.
Posted by: Drew B. on July 17, 2003 03:58 PMin all probability kind of a brain-dead (alcohol, white stuff) president.
shamerica is doomed.