[steelie]

The Butler report said British intelligence had “credible” information — from several sources — that a 1999 visit by Iraqi officials to Niger was for the purpose of buying uranium:

Butler Report: It is accepted by all parties that Iraqi officials visited Niger in 1999. The British Government had intelligence from several different sources indicating that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring uranium. Since uranium constitutes almost three-quarters of Niger’s exports, the intelligence was credible.

The Butler Report affirmed what the British government had said about the Niger uranium story back in 2003, and specifically endorsed what Bush said as well.

Butler Report: By extension, we conclude also that the statement in President Bush’s State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 that “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” was well-founded.

[LS]

Where did you get that I DIDN'T think that statement was "well-founded?" I said that the administration did not do a good job of "selling" the WMDs after the war started; of sticking to its guns; and of managing the news. I further said---which I told the President personally when we met in the Oval Office in Aug. 2006---that we needed new and different ways of getting the message out. The media could "preempt" any "news" he had, or any of his views. He agreed, but we did not get into the specifics of how to do that. I then sent those specifics to his advisors, but by then it was too late. Some of them were radical in approach, and are not well undertaken in mid-administration, but at the outset of a new administration. Somehow, I don't see McCain adopting them, even if elected.