Niger is Still a Lie
WaPo has the story of how the now-famous uranium from Niger story got rolling and how botched our analysis of it was. People still ask whether or not this even matters with regard to where we are today. I say yes. If the reasons that this corrupt administration got into Iraq was trumped up, then the reasons to stay can be trumped up. The world believes that we were lied to war. And if they went to war under false pretenses, does a protracted war benefit the people that drove us to it in the first place? It matters.
Mike Castle, won’t you please stand by the soldiers instead of that moron at the other end of Pennsylvania Ave.?
Tags: Bush's FUBAR War
I once thought that Castle was smart enough to realize that Bush was terrible, but he played along because that was the way the wind was blowing.
But I’m starting to think Castle’s reputation for being smart is unfounded.
Unfounded: Jason’s self-hiatus until February 2008.
Did you get thrown in the river or something? We’ve joked about that, but no one was crazy enough to try it!
Hey Jason it’s good to hear from you!
I’ve never heard that Castle is smart. Although I’ve heard some other things about him.
Rich? Yeah his Congressional financial disclosure is pretty impressive.
Self serving? I’d say he falls into that category. He sure doesn’t vote to represent his constituents.
Chairman of the 2004 Re-Elect Bush Campaign in Delaware? Guilty!
Rumored to be a target for the DCCC in 2008? Yup!
hold on just one second!? they lied to us?!
what the hell? I don’t believe this.
Fact: in 1999, an Iraqi government official named Wissam al Zawahie went on a trade mission to Niger. At the time, al Zawahie was a primary government proponent of Iraq’s developing nuclear weapons. (This is according to the IAEA, by the way, and not Karl Rove.)
Fact: Niger’s only two major exports (World Bank on this, not Karl Rove) are livestock and uranium.
Fact: Niger’s two main uranium mines are owned and operated by French corporations.
Supposition: The British intel on Wissam al Zawahie’s uranium-buying trip came from the French, either officially-but-secretly or unofficially. I’d lean toward unofficial channels, given France’s involvement in the Oil-for-Food scandal and subsequent push to bribe other UN members to vote against stiffer sanctions.
Of course, to hear long-time partisan Dem Joe Wilson tell it, Al Zawahie was buying chickens and goats.