Old story, detailing WH perfidy, contradictions, re: Niger

[buycitgo]

I found this year old story while looking up stuff on Bush's "darn good intelligence" quote

look at how they lied their asses off WRT the language included in both the October, 02 speech AND the SOTU, regarding Iraq's attempts to purchase fissionable material

Since last Monday, the administration has offered changing explanations for that statement. At first, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the statement was simply wrong because it "was based and predicated on the yellowcake from Niger."

On Friday, Bush and top aides said the CIA approved the inclusion of those words, and CIA Director George J. Tenet took responsibility. Yet Bush aides have argued in recent days that the statement may, in fact, prove to be correct. Officials said Sunday the British had sources other than the forged documents, but they have declined to reveal them.

Yesterday Bush defended the charge as he fielded questions after a meeting in the Oval Office with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. "I think the intelligence I get is darn good intelligence," he said. "And the speeches I have given were backed by good intelligence. And I am absolutely convinced today, like I was convinced when I gave the speeches, that Saddam Hussein developed a program of weapons of mass destruction, and that our country made the right decision."

The president again noted that his speech was approved by the CIA and suggested that any doubts about the charge came after the speech. "The thing that's important to realize is that we're constantly gathering data," he said. "Subsequent to the speech, the CIA had some doubts. But when they talked about the speech and when they looked at the speech, it was cleared. Otherwise, I wouldn't have put it in the speech."

this is almost a seminal article, in that it contains just about all one needs to put the lie to the idea that Iraq had ANY chance of getting yellowcake from Niger

it includes quotes from one of the other people who went to Niger, Gen. Fulford, who makes it VERY CLEAR what the deal was. He passed it on to Gen. Meyers, who, of course, can't remember ever seeing it.

it ALSO includes the very wimpy charge that events "appear to contradict" dumbo's assertion that the war STARTED because Saddam refused to let the inspectors back in; he's repeated this charge at least once, maybe twice since he said it.

there's a lot more in there, which is ALL very damaging to the junta, and should provide lots of material for those seeking to refute the next chapter in the wingnut attempt to rewrite history.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A56336-2003Jul14¬Found=true

[buycitgo]

1. read the last several paragrahs from the bottom of the story

they really give a great insight into the complete and utter panic this story caused at the time: everybody contradicts each other, and can't keep even the most BASIC facts straight, from Condi, to Dan Bartlett, to Ari Fleischer.

looking back, it's simply amazing that this story didn't start an avalanche of media deconstruction into exactly WHAT the house propaganda was going to BE on this

but, wait; what am I talking about here.

the media is NOW going after WILSON for making things up, when they have all the evidence they could possibly need in just this one story to do an entire SERIES on how badly the WH is lying

why does anybody even bother?

[bpilgrim]

2. Gilligan's report 'unfounded'

Key allegations about the government's Iraq dossier reported by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan were "unfounded", Lord Hutton has said.

source...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3437471.stm

i fear the same thing is going to happen to jw here that happened to Gilligan from the bbc if we don't persuade the media to cover this story.

then there is the horrible torture of children story that isn't being covered cept abroad and a few print media outlets here at home.

Torturing Children By William Rivers Pitt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/072004A.shtml

:'(

peace

[buycitgo]

3. yep; just another tile in the mosaic

media complicity, dem fecklessness (Wilson's a part of the Kerry CAMPAIGN, for god's sake. can't they marshal the simplest facts in his defense?), pug mendacity

it just keeps growing in scope and expanse

nobody on the left is doing squat to stem the tide

only horrible events in the saddle will beat Bush

and they're refusing to cover said events now

[buycitgo]

4. there's an AWFUL lot of material in here for the Kerry campaign

think they have this in their files?

or was it too early in the campaign for them to be amassing material like this?

good quotes in here to bolster the LIAR meme.