See! Yellowcake!
United Press International – Intl. Intelligence – Walker’s World: Bush at bay — This seems to be getting worse. And it all stems from a “dirty trick” run amok. Pulling the Valerie Plame stunt accomplished nothing and had to be done just for sheer malice. This widening investigation is the result.
The letterheads and official seals that appeared to authenticate the documents apparently came from a burglary at the Niger Embassy in Rome in 2001. At this point, the facts start dribbling away into conspiracy theories that involve membership of shadowy Masonic lodges, Iranian go-betweens, right-wing cabals inside Italian Intelligence and so on. It is not yet known how far Fitzgerald, in his two years of inquiries, has fished in these murky waters.
There is one line of inquiry with an American connection that Fitzgerald would have found it difficult to ignore. This is the claim that a mid-ranking Pentagon official, Larry Franklin, held talks with some Italian intelligence and defense officials in Rome in late 2001. Franklin has since been arrested on charges of passing classified information to staff of the pro-Israel lobby group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. Franklin has reportedly reached a plea bargain with his prosecutor, Paul McNulty, and it would be odd if McNulty and Fitzgerald had not conferred to see if their inquiries connected.
Where all this leads will not be clear until Fitzgerald breaks his silence, widely expected to occur this week when the term of his grand jury expires.
When will true Americans, the truly patriotic in their hearts, instead of just on their bumper-stickers, start demanding a full investigation of the events surrounding the whole “Yellow Cake in Niger” event? Forget Wilson for a moment… the fact is that the President used the Yellow Cake as a core justification for the war on Iraq in his State of the Union address, directly saying that we were under nuclear threat.
Then the same president had to admit that the documents were false after Wilson spoke up. Yet the same admininstration has made no effort, none whatsoever, to locate the source of the falsified documents.
If Bush and his supporters expect to have ANY credibility at all, that fundamental question MUST be answered.
At this point, I seriously question the honesty Bush supporters, because the Bush administration itself is more and more unpatriotic every day.
Awake,
The “yellow cake” documents were never a core part of the justification. In fact, Iraq was suspected of seeking out uranium long before the fake documents came out. After Wilson did “speak up”, though not because he did, Tenet said the words never should have been in the SofU address. Administration officials have said since that the documents were fake.
It should be noted that Wilson’s trip a) did not change any one’s mind in the CIA b) showed that Iraq was probably sniffing around for yellowcake in 1999.
So, I don’t know why these yellowcake papers are that important. The only person who really made them into a big deal is Wilson, because no one in our intelligence agencies or the British intelligence agencies relied on them. In fact, the British reportedly based their intelligence on wire taps.
what the heck has happened to the investigative journalism that I remember as a kid?
When this story broke two years ago, the first question that came to my mind was… who would want to perpetuate a hoax that Saddam had WMDs?
Wasn’t this the most obvious question to you back then? The “yellowake” issue wasn’t just “bad intelligence”; it was a deliberate hoax.
Who plotted the hoax and why?
In former days of journalism, the press would have tenaciously pursued answers for these essential questions.
Wilson’s report of his Niger trip SUPPORTED the President’s uranium story. The Senate Committee report, signed by both parties, agreed on this fact.
It was quicker, this morning, to find Wilson’s repetition of his testimony before a British commission. AB CD should read stuff instead of relying on ditto-head sites:
I traveled to Niger, spent eight days there meeting with former members of the Niger government and satisfied myself that their answers, coupled with the structure of the mining industry, about which I knew quite a bit, and the government decision making process made it highly unlikely that such a transaction had ever taken place. There were two other inquiries made at approximately the same time. Our Ambassador to Niger at the time, Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick and the Deputy Commander in Chief of US Armed Forces in Europe, Marine Corps General Carlton Fulford who also traveled to Niger reported that it was highly unlikely that such a sale had occurred. There were, accordingly, three reports on the subject in the files of the US government by mid March, 2002. Parenthetically, there are those who have questioned my qualifications to make the inquiries, noting that I am not a CIA officer, nor an expert on WMD. Those assertions are true. I am, however, an expert on Niger, and know quite a bit about uranium mining in Africa, having served in three countries in Africa in which uranium is mined, including as Ambassador to Gabon where the mining industry structure is similar to that in Niger. Uranium yellowcake is the result of the separation of ore from the rock in which it is found. It is a mining question, not a nuclear weapon question. My particular value added to the US government’s understanding of the issue was my knowledge of the country, its mining industry and my long relationship with key players in Niger’s politics. Quite simply I knew them far better than our Ambassador who had arrived during the transition to a new government.
I reported back to the CIA, after having also briefed the Ambassador and embassy officials in Niamey, and went back to my private life.
What’s interesting about this, and the reason people are so interested, is it is so far the only real chink in the armor of “infallibility” the Bush adminstration has wrapped itself in. In the vast swarm of lies that these guys have gotten away with since 9/11, they have been held accountable for precious little. The corruption that is being investigated is only an emblem, a small example, of how they have abused power. So let the chickens come home to roost. I think people are tired of being lied to.
Yeah, I guess Senators are too stupid to read documents. The President never said anything about a sale, he said attempted to purchase, and the Brits stand by that statement. Wilson reported to the CIA that Niger’s former prime minister thought Iraqis were interested in buying uranium.
It is patently obvious that Wilson is not an expert on Niger, and that he has only a passing knowledge of the subject,Ambassadors don’t hanle such affair the Commercial Attache does.
Why is there sucj a peculiar lack of interest in why Wilson was sent to Niger,could the CIA not have produced and expert from its own considerable ranks,and if it has not got such an expert,why has it not got one?