Nuclear lies could be dynamite

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Walter Pincus, writing in today's Washington Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46957-2003Jun11.html) ,
reports on the forged Niger papers scandal, but covers up the explosive
conclusion with the last sentence of the lead paragraph:
----
A key component of President Bush's claim in his State of the Union address
last January that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program -- its alleged
attempt to buy uranium in Niger -- was disputed by a CIA-directed mission to
the central African nation in early 2002, according to senior administration
officials and a former government official. But the CIA did not pass on the
detailed results of its investigation to the White House or other government
agencies, the officials said
...
Armed with information purportedly showing that Iraqi officials had been
seeking to buy uranium in Niger one or two years earlier, the CIA in early
February 2002 dispatched a retired U.S. ambassador to the country to
investigate the claims, according to the senior U.S. officials and the
former government official, who is familiar with the event. The sources
spoke on condition of anonymity and on condition that the name of the former
ambassador not be disclosed.

During his trip, the CIA's envoy spoke with the president of Niger and other
Niger officials mentioned as being involved in the Iraqi effort, some of
whose signatures purportedly appeared on the documents.

After returning to the United States, the envoy reported to the CIA that the
uranium-purchase story was false, the sources said. Among the envoy's
conclusions was that the documents may have been forged because the "dates
were wrong and the names were wrong," the former U.S. government official
said.

However, the CIA did not include details of the former ambassador's report
and his identity as the source, which would have added to the credibility of
his findings, in its intelligence reports that were shared with other
government agencies.
----

But former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, writing on the Counterpunch website
(http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern06122003.html), tells the full story,
which seems like potential dynamite if the allegation that Cheney was
directly involved can be substantiated:
----
To his credit, early last year Vice President Dick Cheney sent to Niger a
former US ambassador in Africa to investigate the story. The latter brought
back word that the documents were not authentic. But this did not prevent
senior administration officials from using them in the critical run-up to
Congress' vote to give the president the authority to make war.

Indeed, President Bush included the forged "evidence" in his
state-of-the-union address on January 28-something Dr. Rice, when asked
about it by George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, was at a loss to explain
satisfactorily. Now "senior administration officials" are telling gullible
reporters that Cheney was never informed of the outcome of the investigation
he ordered. I'm not making this up.

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