HE SAID, as my mimosa dripped from my chin,
that “Saddam is not insane. He is a stone cold killer, to be sure, but he is not crazy.”….”Quite intelligent, but not crazy.”

OH MY GOD ALMIGHTY—-DAN, buddy, “stone cold killer” is CERTAINLY on the INSANITY CONTINUUM somewhere between Girl Scout and Sociopath.

Dan. You went off your meds again, didn’t you, buddy?

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?

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..

Right, because those documents were not the source of the intelligence. Read the Butler Report. The Brits still stand by the intel they gave us.

Same thing here, it has always amazed me that Bushies claim that somehow the papers that proved Bush had not bugged out on his NG requirements were just misplaced.

No, I think it’s that they don’t exist and never have. Do you have any evidence to the contrary?

How odd all of the same docs went AWOL with Dubya.

What docs have gone missing?

Sort of reminds me of how you can’t find a copy of that tarty Lynn Cheney’s steamy novels anywhere.

Well, pulp novels tend to go out of print, but if you really want one, you’re in luck!

Kingrhino…out!

Defending the fake CBS documents again. Still crazy after all these years…….

She looks like that white haired actor from Blues Brothers (Nazi guy), The Burbs (serial killer next door), Magnolia (older gay guy at the bar). I don’t know the guys name, but they could have been serparated at birth.

That was Henry Gibson, who used to be a regular on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.

Either way, these documents were clearly forged. Wrong signature, wrong signature block, wrong format for a memo of record. You can’t tell me the commander’s secretary didn’t know Tongue and Quill (the Air Force book that tells you how to write a memo and every other piece of correspondence).

cmay on November 7, 2006 at 12:11 PM

She, Rather, and other defenders of this story, forged documents be damnned, can tell you whatever they need to to justify in their minds that the story is true, because, dammint, they want it to be true.

It’s over man. Let it go.

I’m not trying to belittle you, but you don’t know what goes into military “records.” Your father’s records did not contain every scrap of paper that involved your his service. Generally speaking, you probably saw performance reports, medal citations, training certification, PCS orders and his discharge. You most likely did not see temporary duty orders, training reports, letters of reprimand or counseling, hand receipts, or a host of other paperwork that the military is rightly famous for.

The documents that Rather tried to pass off as authentic were along the lines of letters of counseling (LOC) or reprimand (LOR). If Bush’s commander had written him up, Bush’s signature would also be on that paper. What good is counseling or reprimand if the person who is being counseled or reprimanded doesn’t know?

Or these documents may have been Memoranda for Record to build a case against a delinquent service member. In which case, no signature is needed. But memos are not part of a service members records because there is no adminstrative or judicial action. These are not duplicated and are routinely destroyed.

Either way, these documents were clearly forged. Wrong signature, wrong signature block, wrong format for a memo of record. You can’t tell me the commander’s secretary didn’t know Tongue and Quill (the Air Force book that tells you how to write a memo and every other piece of correspondence).

I will the voice in the dark.

He smells blood in the water.

Nah, you’re just standing too close to yerself Dan.

I’m sure glad we went to different schools together.

This is from the 40′s. The military invented redundancy. How odd all of the same docs went AWOL with Dubya. Sort of reminds me of how you can’t find a copy of that tarty Lynn Cheney’s steamy novels anywhere.