NYT New Reports Again Question Whether Iraq Sought Uranium in Niger

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Administration officials said they were not crowing about the reports for a variety of reasons. For one thing, they said, both reports were highly critical of most of the prewar intelligence developed by both Britain and the United States, and to embrace one aspect of the reports would make it more difficult to dispute other findings.

In addition, they said, the internal finger-pointing over who had been to blame for the inclusion of the 16 words in the State of the Union address had left so much bad feeling, especially among the White House, the C.I.A. and the State Department, that there was little appetite for reopening the subject.
...
But Mr. Wilson has been left on the defensive by the Senate Intelligence Committee's report, which found that, contrary to what he has said, his wife, Valerie Plame, appeared to have had a role in the decision to send him to Niger.

In a letter this week to the chairman and the vice chairman of the intelligence committee, Mr. Wilson disputed the assertion that the plan to send him to Niger was suggested by his wife. Mr. Wilson said the comments she made about his background in a letter to her boss a week before he visited the C.I.A. to discuss the trip were intended to establish his bona fides and did not constitute a recommendation. Mr. Wilson also cited news accounts last year quoting unidentified intelligence officials as saying that Ms. Plame had not proposed Mr. Wilson for the trip. And he took exception to criticism by the committee's chairman, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, and other Republicans, who said he had gone on a media blitz to convince the world that Mr. Bush had lied.

There may be more revelations to come. The British and American reports contained still-classified information about Iraq's dealings with Niger. Beyond that, Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor examining the leak of Ms. Plame's identity, is expected to announce in a matter of weeks whether he will prosecute anyone.

http://nytimes.com/2004/07/18/international/middleeast/18URAN.html?pagewanted=2

[goforit]

1. So many LIES!!!!!.........NYT kissing Cheney's BUTTTTTT!

[lancdem]

2. This is what caught my eye

Beyond that, Patrick Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor examining the leak of Ms. Plame's identity, is expected to announce in a matter of weeks whether he will prosecute anyone.

[struggle4progress]

3. Wilson letter to WaPo:

Debunking Distortions About My Trip to Niger
Saturday, July 17, 2004; Page A17

For the second time in a year, your paper has published an article falsely suggesting that my wife, Valerie Plame, was responsible for the trip I took to Niger on behalf of the U.S. government to look into allegations that Iraq had sought to purchase several hundred tons of yellowcake uranium from that West African country. Last July 14, Robert Novak, claiming two senior sources, exposed Valerie as an "agency operative suggested sending him to Niger." Novak went ahead with his column despite the fact that the CIA had urged him not to disclose her identity. That leak to Novak may well have been a federal crime and is under investigation.
<snip>

The decision to send me to Niger was not made, and could not be made, by Valerie. At the conclusion of a meeting that she did not attend, I was asked by CIA officials whether I would be willing to travel to Niger. While a CIA reports officer and a State Department analyst, both cited in the report, speculate about what happened, neither of them was in the chain of command that made the decision to send me. Reams of documents were given over to the Senate committee, but the only quotation attributed to my wife on this subject was the anodyne "my husband has good relations with both the PM (Prime Minister) and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." In fact, with 2-year-old twins at home, Valerie did not relish my absence for a two-week period. But she acquiesced because, in the zeal to be responsive to the legitimate concerns raised by the vice president, officials of her agency turned to a known functionary who had previously checked out uranium-related questions for them.

But that is not the only inaccurate assertion or conclusion in the Senate report uncritically parroted in the article. Other inaccuracies and distortions include the suggestion that my findings "bolstered" the case that Niger was engaged in illegal sales of uranium to Iraq. In fact, the Senate report is clear that the intelligence community attempted to keep the claim out of presidential documents because of the weakness of the evidence.

The facts surrounding my trip remain the same. I traveled to Niger and found it unlikely that Iraq had attempted to purchase several hundred tons of yellowcake uranium. In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush referred to Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium "from Africa." Between March 2003 and July 2003, the administration refused to acknowledge that it had known for more than a year that the claim on uranium sales from Niger had been discredited, until the day after my article in the New York Times. The next day the White House issued a statement that "the sixteen words did not rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union address." Those facts are amply supported in the Senate report.

-- Joseph C. Wilson IV

[ScrewyRabbit]

4. It's so stupid

They don't bother to report how Wilson was still CORRECT in his assessment. It's all about whether his wife recommended him. WHO CARES? How many people are actually qualified to investigate this kind of stuff? It's just smoke and mirrors what the repug thugs are reporting...

[faithnotgreed]

5. just what i was thinking. i kindof wished wilson would have written the

letter in order to amplify just what you pointed out.

what we see here in his letter is the less important aspect of whether or not his wife recommended him to go in the first place. though i know he takes his word and honor very seriously..

but then again this is what * and co do. they change the subject to what is not important every single time
and the media promptly follow

[kohodog]

6. Hey Pot, this is Kettle...

The NYT using the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page as a source for a news article?

What is really going on here?

[TacticalPeek]

7. Wilson will be on CNN's Late Edition tomorrow, noon EST.

:)