How They Lied Us Into War: Closing in on a ‘Funky’ Forgery

Via the Left Coaster blog, this snippet from a piece in the UK’s Private Eye magazine illuminates the mystery of how the Niger uranium forgeries came to be incorporated in the U.S. intelligence stream:

“When the US State Department finally gave international weapons inspectors its ‘evidence’ that Saddam was trying to buy uranium from the African State of Niger in 2003, they held back the one document even their own analysts knew was ‘funky’ and ‘clearly a forgery’. Experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency quickly discovered that all the papers were fake, but they did this by spotting errors that had slipped passed the State Department and CIA: The fact that the US government handed over the whole bundle of what became known as the ‘Niger Forgeries’ except the one paper they recognised as a hoax suggests they were trying to pass off documents they knew were phoney as the real thing.”

The neocons are crying “McCarthyism” in response to demands that Congress investigate charges that we were lied into war. However, somebody in our government knew these documents were forgeries, and nonetheless utilized them to make the case for war. When the IAEA exposed them as fraudulent, the FBI initiated an investigation — which soon ran up against the brick wall of this administration’s unwillingness to pursue the matter. What I want to know is why is it left to Private Eye to do the job the FBI ought to be doing?

What did U.S. government officials know about the Niger forgeries, and when did they know it? When we get an answer to this question — or if we can even get Congress and our law enforcement agencies to ask it — we’ll be a lot closer to knowing who lied us into war.

The “Iraqization” Scam

Flashback: Anthony Gregory, April 20, 2004:

Just as the number of Americans who have died after Bush triumphantly stood in front of the now-famous “Mission Accomplished” banner exceeds by several times the U.S. death count of 140 before the war “ended,” the number of American fatalities after the Iraqi handover may make the current death toll seem like a drop in the bucket…

The fear is that pulling out may prove that the Iraq experiment was a failure, as the country descends into chaos and war. But even after Richard Nixon lost more than twenty thousand troops in his incremental attempts at “Vietnamization,” the United States eventually pulled out only to see South Vietnam fall to communism anyway…

As time goes on, and many more Americans continue to die in Iraq for reasons that increasingly seem unpersuasive to the public, the troops will come home. The only question that remains is how long this war, which now only survives by its own inertia, will continue to consume human lives. The United States can cut its losses now or we can maintain a war with no clear and just purpose, no victory in sight, and no realistic chance of reducing terrorism or bringing freedom to Iraq.

All Points Bulletin

Diana Moon sez:

    I leave it to the big boys to analyze this’n, meanwhile, please go to page 9, where Bush, or his speechwriter, essentially admits that the largest portion of “the enemy” is composed of “rejectionists”, that is, Sunni Arabs “who are against a new Iraq in which they are no longer a privileged elite.”

    So, the next time someone says that the insurgency is manned mostly by foreigners, quote the President.

And if anyone sees the warbloggers returning to the foreigners-are-the-insurgency trough — and it won’t be long before their little snouts are right back in it — please drop me a line: matt@antiwar.com.

Pelosi Bows to Pressure, Backs Murtha

House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), has bowed to pressure — see here, here, and here — and has announced she is now backing Rep. Jack Murtha’s “out in 6 months” resolution on Iraq.

Of course, Antiwar.com is not taking credit for this sudden turnaround — that belongs to her antiwar constituents, who kept up the heat on her. But we are glad that we had something to do with reversing what I called “The Shame of San Francisco.”

It’s a long way from shame to pride, but let’s see if Pelosi can now go the whole distance …

Fire Rumsfeld

The Cunning Realist makes the timely argument, working from this Rumsfeldian "epiphany."  Read the whole thing, but here’s a quote:

" For Rumsfeld to try to wish away an overwhelmingly indigenous resistance as if it were no more than a stray neighborhood dog is not only the height of hubris, it’s utterly reckless. It also indicates that Rumsfeld lives in the same sort of dangerous bubble as Bush."