BBC: CIA Warned White House on Iraq Claim

[Redbear]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3056626.stm

Good stuff.

[ze_dscherman]

1. A drip, a trickle, a leak ...

"Now the CIA official has told the BBC that Mr Wilson's findings had been passed onto the White House as early as March 2002.

That means that the administration would have known nearly a year before the State of the Union address that the information was likely false.


In response, a US Government official told the BBC that the White House received hundreds of intelligence reports every day.

The official said there was no evidence that this specific cable about uranium had been passed on to the president."

[htuttle]

3. Golly, who's running the filing system?

That is the EXACT same excuse they used regarding the 911 memos they 'missed'. They said, "We get a lot of information about terrorist attacks -- you don't expect us to read ALL of it, do you?"

Apparently, somebody needs to go through their Inbox more often.

(note: I don't believe a word of either excuse...just pointing out how lame the excuses themselves are).

[Mithras61]

6. This touches on 2 things...

The first is that Cheney requested Wilson go to Africa (at least, according to Wilson, he did), so where did Wilson's cable go? Who is REALLY running things if the VPs request for info isn't routed to the VP? If the VP DID get the cable, why didn't li'l Georgie? I mean, really! WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?

Secondly, if the President were to use a claim in the SOTU address, shouldn't it be verified first? Aren't ALL the claimns in the SOTU verified (or at least vetted) by intelligence agencies before he's allowed to go on record in the largest, most important, constitutionally mandated address to the congress (and people) of the USA? Does this mean that everyting in the SOTU is unverified and on Shrub's say-so? That means it is ONLY OPINION just like so much confetti in the wind! If the SOTU is an opinion piece, then what can we believe from this administration?

[wellst0nev0ter]

2. Stick A Spork In Him, He's Done

Sorry, but monkeyboy's "plausible deniability" claim just went up in smoke.

To paraphrase a certain maligned congresswoman from Georgia: what did he know and when did he know it???

[Jackpine Radical]

9. You might say he's reached the point of

deniable plausibility.

[Kolesar]

4. BBC: Timeline of Uranium Lies

This is excellent! I am used to seeing this stuff on leftist sites, but now it's the BBC. This is a link from Redbear's story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3051709.stm

[AlexanderBarca]

5. This has probably already been said...

But I wish that the American Press were more like the English Press. I'm here on holiday and the press is just absolutely viscous. They have a take-no-prisoners and a don't-screw-with-us method of work that our country is desperately lacking. :( :(

[Rose Siding]

7. There's a dupe discussion here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3525&mesg_id=3525&listing_type=search

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. * Knew About The Niger Papers Too

Despite all the spin:
----------------------------------------
An intelligence consultant who was present at two White House briefings where the uranium report was discussed confirmed that the President was told the intelligence was questionable and that his national security advisors urged him not to include the claim in his State of the Union address.

"The report had already been discredited," said Terrance J. Wilkinson, a CIA advisor present at two White House briefings. "This point was clearly made when the President was in the room during at least two of the briefings."

Bush's response was anger, Wilkinson said.

"He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country."

To date, American troops have found no proof of the existence of nuclear weapons in Iraq.

Wilkinson retired two months later but says he wrote "numerous memos" questioning the wisdom of using "intelligence information that we knew to be from dubious sources."

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_2518.shtml

[ZenLefty]

10. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3525&mesg_id=3525&listing_type=search