[fuzlim]

What Joe Wilson said or doesn't affect the Niger documents one way or the other.

As far as I know, the French have made no comment on the Niger documents one way or the other. They weren't the ones who publicized the documents so it's a little difficult to see how they would have profited one way or the other.

If they had exposed the evidence as cheap forgery one would question why they did, and perhaps arrive at your conclusion. But they didn't. As far as I know they've made no comment at all

All that needed to be done to prevent the damage done by these forgeries was to just ignore them. After all, they were buried for two years before they came to public attention.

The only reason they became part of the public debate is because they were used by the US and Britain as evidence of Iraq's desire to build a nuclear weapon.

What ever else, I doubt the French forced the US and Britain to use these documents.

[piasa]

MAY 2000 : (IAEA FINDS IN JORDAN A MACHINE ORDERED BY IRAQ WHICH IS RELATED TO URANIUM ENRICHMENT ) The IAEA said that in May the agency found a filament-winding machine ordered by Iraq that had arrived in Jordan. The agency said the system was part of Baghdad's clandestine uranium enrichment program. The machine and its spare parts were destroyed, the agency said..” - Source : Middle East Newsline 10/18/00