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Bush Was Right About Iraq's Quest For Uranium
Real Clear Politics ^ | April 16,2006 | Jon Leo

Posted on 04/16/2006 4:38:57 PM PDT by 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."

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: declassification; iraq; iraqdocs; johnleo; niger; prewardocs; uranium; washingtonpost; wilson; wot
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To: newzjunkey

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......


21 posted on 04/16/2006 5:17:39 PM PDT by tcrlaf
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To: tcrlaf

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.


22 posted on 04/16/2006 5:18:20 PM PDT by newzjunkey (America for Americans: No amnesty.)
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To: aflaak

ping


23 posted on 04/16/2006 5:18:40 PM PDT by r-q-tek86 (Black ribbon on my IPW card in memory of PaulaB)
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To: tcrlaf
And now we face an even GREATER threat in Iran, and it's happening again....

Deserves repeating.

24 posted on 04/16/2006 5:19:03 PM PDT by newzjunkey (America for Americans: No amnesty.)
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To: newzjunkey

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.


25 posted on 04/16/2006 5:19:06 PM PDT by Wristpin ("The Yankees announce plan to buy every player in Baseball....")
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To: kayak
"The Drive-by Media"

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

26 posted on 04/16/2006 5:21:25 PM PDT by cookcounty (Army Vet, Army Dad.)
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To: Txsleuth

Matthews is a particularly juvenile Democrat politico.


27 posted on 04/16/2006 5:30:40 PM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: 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."

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."

28 posted on 04/16/2006 5:31:00 PM PDT by cookcounty (Army Vet, Army Dad.)
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To: tcrlaf

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


29 posted on 04/16/2006 5:32:04 PM PDT by popdonnelly
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To: cookcounty

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.


30 posted on 04/16/2006 5:33:33 PM PDT by Wristpin ("The Yankees announce plan to buy every player in Baseball....")
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To: tcrlaf
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

31 posted on 04/16/2006 5:34:09 PM PDT by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
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To: cookcounty
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).

32 posted on 04/16/2006 5:39:15 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: tcrlaf
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...


33 posted on 04/16/2006 5:40:21 PM PDT by RonDog
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To: FreedomCalls

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??


34 posted on 04/16/2006 5:40:25 PM PDT by tcrlaf
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To: Txsleuth

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.....


35 posted on 04/16/2006 5:42:49 PM PDT by Bush gal in LA
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To: Para-Ord.45

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.


36 posted on 04/16/2006 5:47:50 PM PDT by freedom4me ("Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom."--Ben Franklin)
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To: tcrlaf

Bookemarked


37 posted on 04/16/2006 5:48:37 PM PDT by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: Bush gal in LA

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


38 posted on 04/16/2006 5:50:56 PM PDT by Txsleuth
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To: tcrlaf

You are right on!! Keep it up!!


39 posted on 04/16/2006 5:52:43 PM PDT by BobFromNJ (out dthere)
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To: tcrlaf
"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?

40 posted on 04/16/2006 5:58:11 PM PDT by GBA
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