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KevinTheOmnivore KevinTheOmnivore is offline
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Old Jul 23rd, 2004, 07:00 PM       
""Iraq actually DID seek yellowcake in Niger."

and......

"Is it not clear that Iraq SOUGHT yellowcake? You can split hairs and point to the word "assumed" but you can hardly avoid the rest of the paragraph that shows us this meeting took place. Yes, we are left wondering a bit, so if you want to show me how that quote from your article should leave me to believe Iraq did not seek yellowcake from Niger, rock on."

I realize this is a displaced quotation, but I wanted to separate Wilson from the Niger/uranium discussion. In reading your article, it seems to implcate Libya much more than it does Iraq in this global conspiracy of "undeclared" uranium. It's interesting, however, that Libya's interest in stockpiling yellowcake would be compared to Iraq, who already had enough "declared" yellow cake to stat such weapons programs if they so desired. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but Libya in fact had much less in terms of the weapons refining materials that they had declared. Check out George Joffe's article in the latest Current History journal, entitled "Libya: Who blinked, and why". It seems like it has become common knowledge that Libya actually pulled an old Cold War bargaining trick, and essentially declared a heck of a lot more than what they actually had, or what they were capable of. The IAEA, the same agency that reported the Niger forgery, also reported that Libya had over-stated her weapons production capabilities. It works for them, cuz they get sanctions lifted, and it works for us, b/c we score a victory in the "war on terrorism."

But does having yellow cake alone mean you have "stockpiles" of WMD??? It certainly didn't mean that for Libya.

Now you may be right-- perhaps Iraq did speak with Niger about uranium years ago......perhaps. But like I said, they already had it. And how much were they going to move from inactive minds that the French had given up on? Maybe they in fact did SEEK yellow cake, but that once again doesn't validate this war in Iraq, nor does it entirely invalidate the reports of Joe Wilson. The French didn't sell it to them, and who would be selling out of inactive mines???

To get picky over words like sought sounds to me like this isn't about justifying a war that in reality continues to take American lives, but rather, it's about giving the POTUS plausible deniability in what he said during the SOTU.
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