The President’s father knew enough to demand proof. Commenting on Iraq’s claims to be complying with U.N. resolutions demanding destruction of military equipment, Pres. George H. W. Bush said,
“I’m from Missouri; we’ve got to see exactly what’s going on.”
7/10/91 White House press conference; BUSHISMS (Workman Pub. NY) comp. eds. “The New Republic.”
It makes sense. A surgeon wants to see MRI’s before operating. A banker wants to see proof of good credit risk before making loans. A lawyer wants to see the underlying documentation (the will, the contract, the deed) before proceeding with litigation.
And any half-competent President & Vice President will ask for the proof behind a report that another nation is purchasing uranium for nefarious purposes. If there are documents upon which the report was made, I expect the President to have the documents examined before he cites the report as fact in whipping up support for war.
Seymour Hersh, in his 10-27-03 “New Yorker” article, “Stovepipe: how conflicts between the Bush administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons,” recounted plenty more:
An Italian journalist, Elisabetha Burba, was offered 22 pages about a uranium sale from Niger to Iraq, for $10,000. She left a copy of the papers at the American embassy, checked out the story in Niger and found nothing to support it, so it died.
There is no consensus on who faked the Niger papers, Hersh continued. One explanation, from a former CIA officer, was that the papers were put together by a group of CIA retired operations officers.
“The thinking, he said, was that the documents would be endorsed by the Iraq hawks at the top of the Bush administration, who would be unable to resist flaunting them at a press conference or an interagency government meeting. They would then look foolish when intelligence officials pointed out they were obvious fakes. But the tactic backfired when the papers won widespread acceptance within the Administration.”
Shocked when the President mentioned it in the State of the Union speech, Hersh was told, former CIA officers “leaked” the papers to the I.A.E.A. to be exposed. The I.A.E.A. confirmed they were fakes and contacted American and British officials. They received no response. So I.A.E.A. director-general ElBaradei described the fraud to the U.N. Security Council. That was March 7, 2003.
March 19, 2003, Pres. Bush announced the beginning of major combat operations in Iraq. Forgeries, shmorgeries.
I went a-Googling to see the forgeries for myself, and found the following at www.cryptome.org/niger-docs.htm, and at www.iraqfact.com/Niger_docs.html, the latter providing English translations. There are other pages; these were the easiest to review:
A letter on stationery with a hand-drawn or traced partial seal of the Republic of Niger, stamped “CONFIDENTIEL” and “URGENT,” is dated Niamey 27/07/2000, with a purported signature of Niger’s president. The typing is all in caps.
“MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT,
J’AI L’HONNEUR DE ME REFERER A L’ACCORD No. 381-NI 2000, CONCERNANT LA FOURNITURE D’URANIUM, SIGNE A NIAMEY LE 06 JUILLET 2000 ENTRE LE GOUVERNEMENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE DU NIGER ET LE GOUVERNEMENT DE L’IRAQ PAR LEURS RESPECTIFS REPRESENTANTS DELEGUES OFFICIELS.
DITE FOURNITURE EQUIVALENTE A 500 TONNES D’URANIUM PUR PAR AN, SERA DELIVRE EN 2 PHASES.
AYANT VU ET EXAMINE LEDIT ACCORD, JE L’APPROUVE EN TOUTES ET CHACUNE DE SES PARTIES EN VERTUE DES POUVOIRS QUI ME SONT CONFERES PAR LA CONSTITUTION DU 12 MAI 1966.
EN CONSEQUENCE, JE VOUS PRIX DE BIEN VOULOIR CONSIDERER LA PRESENTE LETTRE COMME ETANT L’INSTRUMENT FORMEL D’PPRO-RATION DE CET ACCORD PAR LE GOUVERNEMENT DE LA REPUBLIQUE DE NIGER QUI SE TROUVE AINSI VALABLEMENT ENGAGE.
VEUILLE AGREER, MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT, L’ASSURANCE DE MA HAUTE CONSIDERATION.”
May 12, 1966 is the date of the constitution in this document. However, in 2000 — the date of the document — the constitution’s date should have been stated as July 1999. According to the U.S. State Department’s background notes on Niger (www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5474.htm) the constitution of 1992 was revised by national referendum May 12, 1996, and again July 18, 1999.
This letter states that the agreement between Iraq and Niger representatives for the delivery of 500 tons of uranium per year in 2 phases was signed in Niamey July 5, 2000.
A cover letter on different letterhead of the Republique du Niger, Conseil Militaire Supreme, Ministere Des Affaires Etrangeres Et De La Cooperation, is dated Niamey “10 Oct. 2000.” It was addressed to Monsieur l’Ambassadeur du Niger, Rome.
“OBJET: Protocole d’accord entre le Gouvernement du Niger et le Gouvernement d’Iraq relative a la fourniture d’uranium signe les 5 et 6 Juillet 2000 a Niamey.
J’ai l’honneur vous faire tenir ci-joint, pour information, copie du Protocole d’Accord signe a Niamey entre la Republique du Niger et le Gouvernement d’Iraq concernant la fourniture d’uranium que l’Etat nigerien a emis au sujet du Protocole cite en objet.
P. J. 1 [1 paper attached].
[signed] Allele Elhadj Habibou”
Mr. Habibou was Niger’s foreign minister 1988 – 1989. (see www.institutions.africadatabase.org.) The purported letter was dated 2000 — 11 years later.
A letter on a third sort of letterhead of the Republique du Niger, Conseil de Reconciliation Nationale, Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres et de L’Intregration Africaine, date-stamped Niamey “30 Jul 1999” and stamped “URGENT” is not addressed to anyone. Typed all in caps.
“HONNEUR VOUS DEMANDER BIEN VOULOIR CONTACTER S. E. [S. E. = “his Excellency”] L’AMBASSADEUR D’IRAQ M. WISAN AL ZAHAWIE POUR CONNAITRE REPONSE DE SON PAYS CONCERNANT FOURNITURE D’URANIUM SELON DERNIERS ACCORDS ETABLIS A NIAMEY LE 28 JUIN 2000.
PRIERE SUIVRE CE DOSSIER TRES CONFIDENTIEL AVEC TOUTE DISCRETION ET DILIGENCE.
[signed over a typed name] NASSIROU SABO”
This letter was sent to the Niger embassy in Rome, according to the translation in www.iraqfacts.com. It is dated July 30, 1999, yet refers to a uranium sale agreement as made June 28, 2000. In other letters the supposed agreement date was July 5 & 6, 2000.
When Mr. ElBaradei of the I.A.E.A. exposed these documents as lacking in authenticity, a prudent President would have investigated them. Even Bush, not the genius of the century, could have figured out real fast that these documents are highly suspect and so, unreliable, along with intelligence based on them.
Maybe he already knew. Otherwise, he might have said Iraq had actually bought or acquired uranium. He was carefully vague, though, referring to Iraq’s “seeking” uranium of “significant quantities.” He went no further than the British conclusion in the September 2002 White Paper of Iraq’s “attempts” to buy uranium.
The legacy of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice is a chasm of loss. An American president has lost the ability to cite intelligence conclusions as worthy of action. Bush has lost all credibility as a prudent steward of the country. The man has cried Wolf! too often. He cried “uranium!” and milked it to a bust to nudge us into attacking Iraq. Who will be so foolhardy as to believe him when he cries “uranium!” about someplace else?
Burn me once, shame on you, Mr. President. We won’t get burned twice. We’re from Missouri. Show us.
