If you take the time to wade through this fairly exhaustive report on the Forged Niger Documents from the Center for Cooperative Research, I think you'll reach the conclusion that President Bush, along with other high-ranking members of his adminstration, and the British cannot but have known that the whole Niger Yellowcake story was a fraud.

“The fabrication was transparently obvious and quickly established,” a source told the Guardian of London, further noting that this suggested “that British intelligence was either easily hoodwinked or a knowing party to the deceit.” [Guardian, 3/8/03]

In March 2002, career foreign service officer, Africa expert, and former ambassador Joseph Wilson was dispatched to Niger by the CIA to investigate the claim. "After the eight-day trip, the envoy concluded that the rumors were unfounded, going so far as to say that the allegations were 'bogus and unrealistic'”.

In other words, nearly a year before Pres. Bush's ill-starred 2003 State of the Union address, there was credible intelligence information circulating within the corridors of power which strongly refuted the allegation that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium oxide (yellowcake) from the African nation of Niger.

He told The Washington Post, “It really comes down to the administration misrepresenting the facts on an issue that was a fundamental justification for going to war. It begs the question, what else are they lying about?” He added that he did not believe the war was about the alleged threat posed by Saddam Hussein, instead suggesting that the real motive behind the war was to “redraw the map of the Middle East.” [Washington Post, 7/6/03]

What else are they lying about?

Indeed; inquiring minds would like to know.

S