D. Schorr: Rove leak is just part of larger scandal (CS Monitor)

[Up2Late]

(I'm pretty sure this is the same commentary (only in written form) that he gave on NPR's All Things Considered, July 13, 2005 (Maintaining Focus: Rove and Iraq War Data)

Commentary > Daniel Schorr
from the July 15, 2005 edition

Rove leak is just part of larger scandal

By Daniel Schorr
WASHINGTON – Let me remind you that the underlying issue in the Karl Rove controversy is not a leak, but a war and how America was misled into that war.

In 2002 President Bush, having decided to invade Iraq, was casting about for a casus belli. The weapons of mass destruction theme was not yielding very much until a dubious Italian intelligence report, based partly on forged documents (it later turned out), provided reason to speculate that Iraq might be trying to buy so-called yellowcake uranium from the African country of Niger. It did not seem to matter that the CIA advised that the Italian information was "fragmentary and lacked detail."

Prodded by Vice President Dick Cheney and in the hope of getting more conclusive information, the CIA sent Joseph Wilson, an old Africa hand, to Niger to investigate. Mr. Wilson spent eight days talking to everyone in Niger possibly involved and came back to report no sign of an Iraqi bid for uranium and, anyway, Niger's uranium was committed to other countries for many years to come.

No news is bad news for an administration gearing up for war. Ignoring Wilson's report, Cheney talked on TV about Iraq's nuclear potential. And the president himself, in his 2003 State of the Union address no less, pronounced: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Wilson declined to maintain a discreet silence. He told various people that the president was at least mistaken, at most telling an untruth. Finally Wilson directly challenged the administration with a July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed headlined, "What I didn't find in Africa," and making clear his belief that the president deliberately manipulated intelligence in order to justify an invasion.

<http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0715/p09s02-cods.html>
(more at link above)

[Cha]

1. Thanks, I'm bookmarking

this for manana!

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

2. Could possibly want to lock 'em all up on conspiracy and treason?

[bleever]

3. Daniel Schorr is a national treasure.

This is a small piece of a very big scandal: the Iraq war.


Rec'd.

[central scrutinizer]

7. sometimes, maybe

His fawning adulations of Bushco after September 11 caused me cancel my support of National Parrot Radio - I was used to whores like Mara Liasson, Cokie Roberts, and Scott Simon reading from Rove's scripts but when Schorr joined the chorus, it was too much.

[Miss Chybil]

4. This is it. The absolute core issue. Great piece. nt

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

5. Thanks for posting

I heard this piece on NPR the other day - it is excellent. I've emailed it to several people and I sent the CSMonitor my DU Activist Corps LTTE

[Liberal Dose]

6. This makes me wonder if Fitzgerald is digging deeper than he's letting on.

Ken Starr began investigating Whitewater and ended with exposing Clinton's extramarital shenanigans. How did one lead to the other? Starr claims he "connected the dots" and we all know what happened afterward. Could Patrick Fitzgerald be connecting some dots of his own, going for the really big fish?

[savemefromdumbya]

8. Blair and the President of Niger and the uranium

just some info
see http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/nig-a05.shtml

[wryter2000]

9. Watergate flashback!

Does anyone remember Daniel Schorr standing with Nixon's enemies list in his hand and reading them and #3 was Daniel Schorr?

[stubtoe]

11. I remember that.

Can you imagine?? I'll bet he's on the BushCo enemies list now. Not that he'd give a rip at this point in his long career of speaking truth to power.

Really admire that guy. Thanks Mr. Schorr!

[LostinRed]

10. Daniel Schorr is the only reason I still listen to NPR

We need to hear all the Democratic talking heads repeating that first line - "Let me remind you that the underlying issue in the Karl Rove controversy is not a leak, but a war and how America was misled into that war."

[PurpleChez]

12. God Bless Daniel Schorr

and may * and all his minions rot in politial hell