A Sneak Peek At The Butler Report

Via Glenn, we see that the FT is standing by their earlier story.

Caveat buffs will ponder this:

...among Lord Butler's other areas of investigation was the issue of whether Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger. People with knowledge of the report said Lord Butler has concluded that this claim was reasonable and consistent with the intelligence.

That is not exactly the same as saying that the claim was accurate, or that it has subsequently been verified.

However, defenders of Bush's sixteen words may be excused for directing three of Cheney's words to Administration critics.

MORE: We note that the Daily Torygraph buried similar info in the last paragraph of a July 5 story:

On the other contentious issue, British claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium ore from Niger, Lord Butler is believed to say an MI6 report was accurate and not based on fake documents from the CIA.

FOR NOSTALGIA BUFFS: ""The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." [Bush, State of the Union, 1/28/03]

What I Didn't Find in Africa, by the incredible Joseph C. Wilson IV.

UPDATE: A bit of a filibuster from Tim Dunlop, who eventually gets to his main point - why did the Bush Administration back down from this claim? Good question, which ties in to two of mine - why should I defend the Admin more vigorously than they defend themselves, and why should I expect the media to publicize this if the Bush people don't? Well?

A partial answer - the original 16 Words were correct but Clintonian, and the Bush people saw a losing PR fight ahead. A more complete truth would have been something like, "the Brits believe it, but they can't share their intel with us and we can't verify it separately - our experts are scratching their heads, but I wanted to pass this tidbit along anyway". Probably not good enough for the SOTU.

So, is is a lie to present anything less than the full and complete truth? I doubt this new standard that our friends on the left have adopted will survive the first week of a Kerry Administration. Bush's statement was misleading; the DNC response ("Fact: Bush Administration Knew Claim Was False") is even more misleading.

UPDATE: Here is a Guardian story from the time that the first British dossier was released in Sept. 2002. The rumor then - smugglers and gangs moving uranium.

Comments

[Brad DeLong]

Interesting...

So which way to the core of this wilderness of mirrors?

[Mick]

You won't find it by following Wilson.

[The Kid]

"Lord Butler is believed to say an MI6 report was accurate and not based on fake documents from the CIA."

I must have drifted off, but when was the CIA identified as the source of fake documents and who identified it as such? Was it the CIA, renegade CIA agents, CIA agents posing as renegade CIA agents, Wilson's wife?

This has gotten maddening, no?

[TM]

RE: "fake documents from the CIA" - I am going to bet that the reporter has a simple explanation in mind - the CIA eventually came into possession of some fake documents, which it passed along to the IAEA. SO, (I presume), they mean that the CIA was "the source" in that limited sense.

As to the reliability of the uranium report, I read somewhere (sorry, no link) that the Brits were viewed with some suspicion by their European counterparts because, after the 1998 Desert Fox bombing of Saddam, the US and Britain were the only major powers really pushing for continued sanctions and efforts against Saddam.

So, this uranium report was the sort of thing that the Brits wanted to promote even before the run-up to the recent war. Which means they might have been willing to suspend disbelief and be spoofed by someone else's intel service, for example.

Or, Saddam might have been trying to acquire uranium, as part of a nuclear fantasy.

[Pouncer]

Okay, but all the right-wing defenders of the "16 words" who built that defense on the logic that "Africa is a larger place than Niger" can find no ADDITIONAL support from the latest news that Iraq did shop in Niger. Those particular defenders can only advance that particular defense by proving that Iraq was shopping for yellowcake elsewhere on the continent.

Defenders of the "16 words" who happened to latch upon the phrase "The British Government has learned" may, however, crow.

Those attackers of the "16 words" who asserted that it is incorrect to say anyone can "learn" a thing that is untrue -- an interesting claim in itself, given the vast numbers of college degrees awarded in, say, Freudian psychology -- should in good conscience concede that small point and shift the point of attack.

Actually, we could all just move on.

Autumn is the most beautiful time to visit Damacus, don't you think?

[capt joe]

Joe Wilson ammended his story when he wrote his book. In it, he stated that Mohammed Al Saheef (Baghdad Bob) went to africa in searchj of Uranium for Iraq. Why did he write this at all. He must have gotten wind of what European Intel was saying.

[blc]

John Loftus was again discussing this on John Batchelor show tonight, with the upcoming Butler Report. Here's Loftus' account: The British and Italians burglarized the Niger Embassy in Rome, and got incriminating documents on Iraq. Britain informed the US, who informed the French. The French created the fake document to be a "poison apple" and submitted it to the US, so that when it was found to be fake, it would discredit the entire investigation. Joe Wilson was given a limited agenda, and didn't talk to any of the right people. Loftus says he is a personal friend of Wilson's (and a Democrat) but has many times said that Wilson' report was sadly lacking. Libya has turned over to the US 2500 tons of yellowcake, 1000 tons of which were undeclared to the IAEA. The black market gets these not from active, but from closed mines, of which one in Congo recently collapsed (from the illicit mining).

[butler report official homepage]

Just a reminder to your readers - the official site for the Butler report is at www.butlerreview.org

Please do NOT confuse this with the tasteless hoax site at www.butlerreview.org.uk.

[TM]

Oh, boy. OK, pretty funny.

[s dawson]

when you look at all the bumph and conjecture about who new what and when it seems to miss the point that far from fearing that sadam had wmd.the yanks and brits wanted him gone but had to be sure he had gotten rid of his wmd before attacking.they new he had got rid of most after the first gulf war when he used thm against the kurds(remember the you rise up and we'll help).the inspection teams confirmed that he had none.the intelligence confirmed he had none but with campbels help wrote it with caveats that could be dropped.
and so the war began.