July 19, 2004
SIXTEEN TRUTHFUL WORDS
AAP reports:
It was one of the first signs that the intelligence used to go to war in Iraq was wrong: White House repudiation of 16 words in last year's State of the Union speech that had suggested Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium in Africa.
Yet even as two recent reports sharply criticized prewar intelligence, they also suggested President Bush's claim may not have been totally off-base.
If Bush isn’t off-base, who is? Crazy Joe Wilson, that’s who. And all his media groupies, writes Mark Steyn:
It turns out JOE WILSON LIED! PEOPLE DIED. Of embarrassment mostly. At least I'm assuming that's why the New York Times, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, PBS drone Bill Moyers and all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they've previously given the hold-the-front-page treatment, too.
Contrary to what Wilson wrote in the New York Times, Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire uranium from Niger. In support of that proposition are a Senate report in Washington, Lord Butler's report in London, MI6, French intelligence, other European agencies -- and, as we now know, the CIA report, based on Joe Wilson's original briefing to them. Against that proposition is Joe Wilson's revised version of events for the Times.
Poor Joe. William Safire notes that the White House reacted prematurely following a forgery "firestorm" by claiming that Bush’s 16 words "did not rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union address":
That apology was a mistake; Bush had spoken the plain truth. Did Saddam seek uranium from Africa, evidence of his continuing illegal interest in a nuclear weapon? Here is Lord Butler's nonpartisan panel, which closely examined the basis of the British intelligence:
" ... we conclude 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."
Much more on this, in much greater detail, may be found here, here, here, here, and here.
UPDATE. And still more.
Posted by Tim Blair at July 19, 2004 10:55 PMI found this terribly funny:
> Who is the new (and anonymous) leader of Hamas?
>
> Sheik Abdul Abfab Abcruncher
> Sheik-O the Magnificent
> Sheik Quakey, the world's trembliest Palestinian
> The Iron Sheik
> Sheik It Like a Polaroid Picture Hey Ya
> Kofi Annan
> Michael Moore
> Atrios
And anyone who says you are racist is so awfully wrong!
Why would someone say that?
I can't figure it out!
Ho hum.
Posted by: Ho Hum at July 19, 2004 at 11:26 PMBut even if Saddam wasn't trying to get uranium, the war was entirely justified on humanitarian grounds.
Oh, you say he was trying to get uranium? Well, damn, then we'll just have to apologise and give Iraq back to him.
No, wait -
Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 19, 2004 at 11:36 PMDiana West had a great op-ed today (on Townhall.com) about how the paper "paper-over" some candidates and not others - it really is quite funny actually!
Follow earl the URL...
Posted by: Joe at July 20, 2004 at 12:01 AMIm shocked!! The media make up a story, never!!!
If Saddam was indeed seeking to acquire Uranium from Africa then there may be a few labor tossers, Kevin Rudd, that may need to recant their statements...But then again, 17 chemically filed missiles were found in Iraq two weeks ago and only received a brief note on the TEN news. I guess 17 missiles capable of killing tens of thousands of people in the lefts eyes don't constitute WMD's.
Posted by: scott at July 20, 2004 at 12:42 AMMichael Moore is a race? Well, he is large enough to be a population of a small country.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at July 20, 2004 at 01:01 AMThey hold the Annual Socialist Idiot 5k race around Moore's fat ass.
I'm loving that Wilson is getting nailed on this. Talk about self righteous. His restorehonesty.com site is still up. Scroll to the bottom to find:
=================================
George Bush's Administration has betrayed our trust - I know that personally. I am honored to endorse John Kerry and to commit myself to his campaign to wrest our democracy back from those who have so squandered the public trust.
I hope you will join us.
- Joe Wilson
Paid for by John Kerry for President, Inc.
=======================================
How embarassing.
Posted by: Dash at July 20, 2004 at 01:13 AMTo bad most Americans will never hear about this, and even if they did, few would even care, or understand why they should.
Posted by: Crusader at July 20, 2004 at 01:46 AMI think the race "Ho Hum" refers to must be Hamas. Clearly it's racist to draw any connection between them and unseemly people like Moore and Atrios.
Posted by: PW at July 20, 2004 at 03:21 AMTim.
Your readers may be interested to know that Wilson appeared on CNN on the 18th. There's a transcript here.