Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to What's all this brouhahah about ONE line?

And what was that one line, Lindy?

Out of a speech almost 5,500 words long, all of this stink is over one 16 word sentence. This is the exact quote:

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Try reading this article. It addresses the line very well.

Precisely which part of that statement isn't true? The British government did say that it believed Saddam had sought African uranium. Is it possible that the British government was mistaken? Sure. Is it possible that Her Majesty's government came by that belief based on an erroneous American intelligence report about a transaction between Iraq and Niger? Yes — but British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of his Cabinet say that's not what happened.

They say, according to Britain's liberal Guardian newspaper, that their claim was based on "extra material, separate and independent from that of the US."

I suppose you can make the case that a British-government claim should not have made its way into the president's SOTU without further verification. But why is that the top of the TV news day after day? Why would even the most dyspeptic Bush-basher see in those 16 accurate words of President's Bush's 5,492-word SOTU an opportunity to persuade Americans that there's a scandal in the White House, another Watergate, grounds for impeachment?

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