News Intelligence Analysis
William Safire In the Cross-Checking Circle
[Editor's Note: The Yurica Report editors remind our readers that George W. Bush stated that the justification for a pre-emptive attack by the United States upon any country was dependent upon "an imminent danger of attack." (National Security Strategy of the U.S.A. at page 15.) This was somewhat modified to: "The purpose of our actions will always be to eliminate a specific threat to the United States or our allies and friends."(National Security Strategy of the U.S.A. at page 16.) Mr. Safire ignores the fact that Mr. Bush's statement to Congress quoted in italics below, asserts that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
First point, the operative word is "recently," which according to the Bush doctrine must be an actual threat to the U.S. and the danger must be "imminent." The date of Saddam Hussein's alleged interest in African uranium was 1999 or four full years earlier.
Second point, Joseph Wilson did in fact disprove the possibility that Niger supplied or was about to supply uranium to Iraq in his article "What I Didn't Find in Africa," published by the New York Times on July 6, 2003. And Joseph Wilson defends himself against Mr. Safire and the GOP Senators in his letter to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Third point: John Dean, the former legal counsel to Richard M. Nixon, wrote that George W. Bush, as President of the United States, made at least eight false statements to the U.S. Congress in his State of the Union speech of January 2003. His misstatements of fact were not just one instance of a falsified sixteen word statement. Dean's analysis may be read in his article "Why a Special Prosecutor's Investigation Is Needed." Keep in mind that according to Dean, "To lie to Congress is a felony."
Fourth point, it is usually laudable to stand up for ones' friends, but Mr. Safire is a journalist whose profession--if it is to remain a profession--must be dedicated to the truth and nothing but the truth. We invite our reader's to examine Mr. Safire's defense of Mr. Bush in which he resorts to an ad hominem attack of Mr. Wilson, and then determine by an examination of the documents, whether Mr. Safire has served his profession and his country laudably or ill.]
From
the New York Times
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Sixteen Truthful Words
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: July 19, 2004
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein
recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
— George W. Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2003
WASHINGTON — Those were "the 16 words" in a momentous message to a joint session of Congress that were pounced on by the wrong-war left to become the simple centerpiece of its angry accusation that "Bush lied to us" — or, as John Kerry more delicately puts it — "misled" us into thinking that Saddam's Iraq posed a danger to the U.S.
The he-lied-to-us charge was led by Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat sent in early 2002 by the C.I.A. to Niger to check out reports by several European intelligence services that Iraq had secretly tried to buy that African nation's only major export, "yellowcake" uranium ore.
Wilson testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he had assured U.S. officials back in 2002 that "there was nothing to the story." When columnist Robert Novak raised the question of nepotism by reporting that he got the assignment at the urging of his C.I.A. wife, Wilson denied that heatedly and denounced her "outing," triggering an investigation. The skilled self-promoter was then embraced as an antiwar martyr, sold a book with "truth" in its title, appeared on the cover of Time and every TV talk show denouncing Bush.
Two exhaustive government reports came out last week showing that it is the president's lionized accuser, and not Mr. Bush, who has been having trouble with the truth.
Contrary to his indignant claim that "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter" of selecting him for the African trip, the Senate published testimony that his C.I.A. wife had "offered up his name" and printed her memo to her boss that "my husband has good relations" with Niger officials and "lots of French contacts." Further destroying his credibility, Wilson now insists this strong pitch did not constitute a recommendation.
More important, it now turns out that senators believe his report to the C.I.A. after visiting Niger actually bolstered the case that Saddam sought — Bush's truthful verb was "sought" — yellowcake, the stuff of nuclear bombs. The C.I.A. gave Wilson's report a "good" grade because "the Nigerien officials admitted that the Iraqi delegation had traveled there in 1999 and that the Nigerien Prime Minister believed the Iraqis were interested in purchasing uranium" — confirming what the British and Italian intelligence services had told us from their own sources.
But a C.I.A. analyst opined "the Brits have exaggerated this issue" because "the Iraqis already have 550 metric tons of uranium oxide in their inventory."
State Department intelligence also was dubious, reports the Senate, more so in October when an Italian journalist brought in a bunch of phony documents somebody was trying to sell him about a Niger uranium transaction. This outweighed the report of a top security official in the French Foreign Ministry, who told U.S. diplomats in November 2002 that "France believed the reporting was true that Iraq had made a procurement attempt for uranium from Niger."
Two months later, with no objection from C.I.A., the famous 16 words went into Bush's 2003 State of the Union.
But when word leaked about the fake documents — which were not the basis of the previous reporting by our allies — Wilson launched his publicity campaign, acting as if he had known earlier about the forgeries. The Senate reports that in his misleading anonymous leak to The Washington Post, "He said he may have misspoken . . . he said he may have become confused about his own recollection. . . ." The subsequent firestorm caused the White House to retreat prematurely with: "the sixteen 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."
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The Ambassador's Article
Here's how it all started:
"What I Didn't Find in Africa"
The Empire Strikes Back!
The Ambassador's wife
is targeted.
One more criminal offense to investigate.
One more reason to appoint a
Special Prosecutor. By John Dean
John Dean gives the Wilsons
a sling shot
and a stone to slay the
giant Empire. John Dean's latest article
in Salon.com outlines the power of a single civil
suit aimed at a corrupt administration.
Dean says the Wilsons should file a
lawsuit. During
the Nixon years, the
DNC filed the shot that was heard
around the world causing Watergate
to explode and Nixon to resign.
John Dean takes a further
look
at the criminal implications
of Ambassador
Wilson's case and the leak exposing his
wife
Valerie Plame.
Are There Grounds to Impeach
Bush & Cheney? Is Lying About
The Reason for War An
Impeachable Offense?
by
John Dean
One of the most important
news analysis on the web:
John Dean analyzes the
President's
State of the Union Speech and finds:
Eight
deceptions that violate federal
criminal statutes: "It is a criminal
offense to make false statements to
Congress."
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