Document Dan: Bush National Guard story is true; Update: Audio added

Honora wrote: “If you read Ann Coulter’s latest book, somewhere in the miasma she makes the claim that just because the documents that “proved” that Saddam was in pursuit of yellow cake and had made a deal with Niger turned out to be..uh…ersatz..didn’t mean that the incident wasn’t true.”

The “ersatz” yellowcake documents were irrelevant to the fact that the UK determined that Saddam attempted to obtain yellowcake from Africa. The UK’s determination was not based upon thise documents.

Specifically:

We conclude that, on the basis of the intelligence assessments at the time, covering both Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the statements on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa in the Government’s dossier, and by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, were well-founded. By extension, we conclude also 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.

[Butler Report, Page 123]

The British Government was made aware of documents which were forgeries after they made their determination. Specifically, the Butler Report states:

From our examination of the intelligence and other material on Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Africa, we have concluded that:

a. It is accepted by all parties that Iraqi officials visited Niger in1999.

b. The British Government had intelligence from several different sources indicating that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring uranium. Since uranium constitutes almost three-quarters of Niger’s exports, the intelligence was credible.

c. The evidence was not conclusive that Iraq actually purchased, as opposed to having sought, uranium and the British Government did not claim this.

d. The forged documents were not available to the British
Government at the time its assessment was made, and so the fact of the forgery does not undermine it.

[Butler Report, Page 125]

The forged National Guard documents, on the other hand, were designed to BE THE PROOF that George W. Bush was AWOL and did not properly perform his duties.

In other words, with respect to Niger, documents were forged independently of the efforts of the British government. With respect to the the Rather documents, documents were forged to prove an allegation that Bush was AWOL.

Do you not see the difference?

georgej on November 7, 2006 at 3:52 PM