Bush Was Right About Iraq's Quest For Uranium

Real Clear Politics ^ | April 16,2006 | Jon Leo

[tcrlaf]

Bush Was Right About Iraq's Quest For Uranium By John Leo

In a surprising editorial, The Washington Post deviated from the conventional anti-Bush media position on two counts. It said President Bush was right to declassify parts of a National Intelligence Estimate to make clear why he thought Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. And the editorial said ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson was wrong to think he had debunked Bush on the nuclear charge because Wilson's statements after visiting Niger actually "supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium."

In the orthodox narrative line, Wilson is the truth-teller and the Bush the liar. But Wilson was not speaking truthfully when he said his wife, Victoria Plame, had nothing to do with the CIA sending him to Niger. And it obviously wasn't true, as Wilson claimed, that he had found nothing to support Bush's charge about Niger when he (Wilson) had been told that the Iraqis were poking around in that uranium-rich nation.

Testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, Wilson said that the former prime minister of Niger told him he had been asked to meet with Iraqis to talk about "expanding commercial relations" between the two countries. Everybody knew what that meant; Niger has nothing much to trade other than uranium.

Christopher Hitchens made the latter point last week in a muscular column subtitled "Sorry, everyone, but Iraq did go uranium shopping in Niger."

[tcrlaf]

Anybody have the Link for the original Article?

[kayak]

bttt

[Para-Ord.45]

The Big Lie begins to unravel.

[OakOak]

Joe Wilson .. a perfect example of the out-of-Control Media.

He and has wife was the victim and Bush was the oppressor.

Wilson lied and lied big time. His wife went to bat for him to secure that he would be picked to make the trip. The information that Wilson would report (and the info he would ignore) was preordained. It was dishonest to select him.

.

[wizardoz]

And the editorial said ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson was wrong to think he had debunked Bush on the nuclear charge because Wilson's statements after visiting Niger actually "supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium."

You know, some of us had the sense to actually read exactly what Joe Wilson said, and listen again to exactly what President Bush said. So we knew this two years ago. But I welcome this editorialist to reality, however late he might be.

[tcrlaf]

*** The Big Lie begins to unravel***
The "Great Liberal Lie" has been unraveling for some time now, I'm just concerned that few seem to be noticing!!!

50 years from now, PoliSci classes will be studying this, and how so many people could be so easily decieved by DNC/Soros/Moonbat-paid propoganda.....

If we have a nation at all in 50 years.......

[Txsleuth]

I saw Christopher Hitchens making the same points that are in this article on Hairball with Chrissy Matthews..and Chrissy either talked over him, cut him off...or called him a liar...

[tcrlaf]

You know this, I know this, then why is it most Americans DO NOT??
Why does this din from the leftists go on DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY, with nary a challenge???

[MaineVoter2002]

Yes he was. Furthermore, Saddam DID have UN banned weapons and they were being found before and after the start of the war. But he was also right about Saddam's connection to Al Qaeda. THAT TRUMPS ALL. The WH seemed to drop that ball politically and they ran with and went on the defensive about WMD.

[Feiny]

We may not have one without revolution. I say split the country in half & let the liberals run one half & the conservatives run the other. It would only be a matter of time before the liberals destroyed themselves & we could take over everything again. Of course, once the liberal got control...they would be ripe for invasion as they would be defenseless..

[jazusamo]

It is good to see that some in the MSM are being forced to finally start reporting the truth.

[tcrlaf]

<<< Of course, once the liberal got control...they would be ripe for invasion as they would be defenseless..>>>

Don't be so sure...

Hitler, The Soviet Union, Saddam and others provide historical examples of what happens when leftists gain control...

Indoctrinate them at an early age, and they will commit ALL KINDS of horrific crimes in the name of the state...

[Cementjungle]

The Big Lie begins to unravel.

One would hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Socratic]

John Leo is allowing the truth to trump partisanship? "I can see! I can see!"

[Feiny]

Yes, but they will have no guns...as guns are the big evil with libs. No one will be armed....the ones in charge will take out their hate on their subjects.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Lefties have an Agenda:

There is a book,:

Unholy Alliance : Radical Islam and the American Left (Hardcover)

*******************************

And a review:

****************************************

Communism is dead. Long live Islam!, September 30, 2004

Reviewer:

Kevin Beckman (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

It sounds absurd: why would Leftists make common cause with a religion that is diametrically opposed to everything the Left stands for? David Horowitz explains that it is really quite logical given the Left's first principle: America is evil and anything or anyone opposed to America is good.

Part I of the book is a brief history of 9/11 through the end of major combat operations in Iraq, and the Left's behavior during this time. Horowitz includes the reaction of Katha Pollitt of The Nation magazine: "The flag stands for vengeance, and jingoism, and war." Anthropology Professor Nicholas De Genova of Columbia University said he hoped for "a million Mogadishus." His colleagues objected, not to the despicable sentiment, but because of the bad publicity it brought their "teach-in." Our tax dollars at work!

Part II is the heart of the book: a history of the American and international Left. Horowitz calls them Neo-Communists or Neocoms. The Neocoms of old believed in the Soviet Union the way religious people believe in God. Those who spied for the USSR didn't see themselves as traitors to their country, but rather loyalists to humanity and an ideal of America that's never existed. When the Soviet Union fell, a few of them stopped for some introspection but most pressed on as if nothing happened. Communist historian Eric Hobsbawm put it nicely: "Without the Revolution, my life and my work are meaningless."

Now that they no longer have to defend an indefensible regime, modern Neocoms are simply nihilists. They know what they oppose but they have no plans for the aftermath of the revolution which they still believe will happen. They don't know what they want, but they know what they hate: the United States, capitalism personified.

So why are they allying with radical Islam? Horowitz says that the Neocoms still believe in Marx's dictum that "religion is the opiate of the masses." Once private property is abolished, the need for religion will vanish, and Islamic radicals will stop being Islamic and radical. The only thing standing in the way is the United States.

Sound insane? It is. They are. I highly recommend this book. Horowitz makes the insanity understandable.

[RaceBannon]

major bump

[newzjunkey]

Too little, too late. None but us will take any notice.

[newzjunkey]

"The Big Lie" has become "common knowledge" and thus anything to the contrary will be dismissed or ignored. The Left are BRILLIANT propogandists. We can't even make a splash with the truth on our side. It's pathetic!

[cookcounty]

This has been obvious to any ordinary trucker or plumber for over a year now. Glad to see a few journalists are finally re-discovering some portion of their lazy brains.

[tcrlaf]

I am afraid you are right....

And now we face an even GREATER threat in Iran, and it's happening again....

While the media bleats, leftists are all but openly supporting a Mad Mullah. It seems that if it's GOOD for America, it's BAD for Liberals/Democrats now......

[newzjunkey]

We won't have a nation you or I can recognize in 50 years. At my age I don't anticipate being alive in 50 years which might be for the best.

[r-q-tek86]

ping

[newzjunkey]

And now we face an even GREATER threat in Iran, and it's happening again....

Deserves repeating.

[Wristpin]

The other thing here is that the Dems are zeroing in on NIGER. There are several Uranium producing countries in Africa. Niger is not Africa.

[cookcounty]

"The Drive-by Media"

A more apt description og these ninnies would be impossible to imagine.

[popdonnelly]

Matthews is a particularly juvenile Democrat politico.

[cookcounty]

"The other thing here is that the Dems are zeroing in on NIGER. There are several Uranium producing countries in Africa. Niger is not Africa."

But look at the facts:

Background: In the eighties, Iraq did purchase uranium from Niger,

Then, in the late 90's the Iraqis sent a high-level trade mission to impoverished Niger, whose primary export is URANIUM (mostly to France. The trade mission was top-heavy with military and scientific types. Any REASONABLE person would suspect that Saddam was likely trying to by uranium. Joe (if we can believe him) asked the President of the country if that's what the trade mission was doing there, and the Nigeri President told him "no."

[popdonnelly]

That is quite a position for the Washington Post to take, since the Post is the Bible of political liberalism in Washington.

[Wristpin]

I truly believe they were trying to procure it. In the late 90's Bill Richardson was sent to another African nation (Gabon I beieve) to check out another purchase. It is mentioned in the Senate Intelligence Report.

[FreedomCalls]

Anybody have the Link for the original Article?

Here's the FR discussion of it (and a link to the original):

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611966/posts

[lepton]

Joe (if we can believe him) asked the President of the country if that's what the trade mission was doing there, and the Nigeri President told him "no."

I'm pretty sure that's not the question asked, or the answer given. As I recall, the question was whether Niger had sold Uranium, and the answer was "not officially"( along with some concern that there were mines not under the governments full control).

[RonDog]

Anybody have the Link for the original Article?

Here is a SHORT EXCERPT from www.washingtonpost.com:

A Good Leak
President Bush declassified some of the intelligence he used to decide on war in Iraq. Is that a scandal?

Sunday, April 9, 2006; B06

PRESIDENT BUSH was right to approve the declassification of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq three years ago in order to make clear why he had believed that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. Presidents are authorized to declassify sensitive material, and the public benefits when they do. But the administration handled the release clumsily, exposing Mr. Bush to the hyperbolic charges of misconduct and hypocrisy that Democrats are leveling...

-- snip --

...The affair concerns, once again, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his absurdly over-examined visit to the African country of Niger in 2002. Each time the case surfaces, opponents of the war in Iraq use it to raise a different set of charges, so it's worth recalling the previous iterations. Mr. Wilson originally claimed in a 2003 New York Times op-ed and in conversations with numerous reporters that he had debunked a report that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Niger and that Mr. Bush's subsequent inclusion of that allegation in his State of the Union address showed that he had deliberately "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraq threat." The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium...

[tcrlaf]

It's taken A WEEK for me to hear about it, and I'm a NEWS HOUND!

If THAT doesn't tell you something about how deeply the MSM wants to bury this, NOTHING will....

I think it's pretty clear that WILSON LIED once he got on Kerry's Payroll, yet on other boards I keep getting the same old "Bush Lied" lines!

When will it begin to sink in to the Media??

[Bush gal in LA]

I also caught that show. I could not believe Mathews, continually stepping on Hitchens points so nobody could hear what he was saying and then letting the liberal talk forever. Did you see at the very end of that segment Hitchens was still trying to talk and Mathews says ''we have no more time for this,'' ? and then going on and plugging some show he was on the night before?...... Even for Mathews ,the guy was particularly vile that day.....

[freedom4me]

Yes, the lie continues to unravel. However, why were Bush and Company so quick to say the statement should not have been in the SOTU message? Too often, the Bush team has a collective knee-jerk response when the MSM hurls accusations.

[chaosagent]

Bookemarked

[Txsleuth]

Yes...LOL

Christopher got so frustrated that I think he just kept talking, even though Chrissy was trying to wrap up the show...just to pay Chrissy back for being so OBVIOUS in his attempts to keep Hitchens from being heard.

It must really panic the libs when Christopher speaks out about this...since he is one of "them"....LOL

[BobFromNJ]

You are right on!! Keep it up!!

[GBA]

"When will it begin to sink in to the Media??"

The question should be: "What will it take to sink the media?"
Why isn't what Wilson did treasonous?

[tcrlaf]

***Why isn't what Wilson did treasonous?***

Because the Liberal definition of "Treason" is now anything that helps Bush, or makes him look good in ANY light....

Just as defeating Democrats at the ballot box has become a crime, so is believing that America has the right to protect itself, it's people. and it's interests from those that wish us harm........

[Mo1]

Hitchens made another point. The forged documents claiming an Iraq-Niger connection were so crude that they could never have fooled the CIA or British intelligence for very long. Who would do this, and do it so badly? Nobody knows. But if the forgeries were meant to distract from other evidence that Bush was right, then they certainly worked. Look around in American journalism, and you will find great certitude that the forgeries destroyed Bush's claim.

Should we ask Dan what he knows about the forged documents ??

Just kidding

Though it is interesting that media is ignoring who could have written them

[infidel29]

bump

[MaDeuce]

50 years from now, PoliSci classes will be studying this, and how so many people could be so easily decieved by DNC/Soros/Moonbat-paid propoganda..... If we have a nation at all in 50 years.......

I'm not sure 50 years from now there will be Poli-Sci classes in any of the Wahabi schools in the great North American Caliphate of Islam ... based on the way US and Europe is taking the threat Islam poses to the rest of the world.

[mcshot]

I have my doubts about our nation surviving another 50 years as well.

[bboop]

We have to be prepared to fight for what we love.

[Chi-townChief]

bttt

[Bush gal in LA]

Yup, I'm sure he is thoroughly and absolutely despised by the left. I think he used to work at ''The Nation''magazine but quickly left there after 911, cause he felt we needed to fight back against the terrorists and all the creeps there flipped out and told him it was ''all our fault.''

[thoughtomator]

So when does Wilson get sued and/or go to jail over his false and defamatory testimony?

[mtntop3]

While the media bleats, leftists are all but openly supporting a Mad Mullah.

One of the Mad Mullah's most fervent apologist at this time is Pat Buchanan, the antisemitic rightist. Buchanan. is joined in his venomous bigotry by Charley Reese, another columnist of similar feverish propensities.