Well, whaddya know...

Bush wrong on Iraqi nuclear weapons
Last Updated Wed, 09 Jul 2003 10:33:15

WASHINGTON - Washington has admitted that a claim President George Bush made in January about Iraq's weapons programs was wrong.

In his state of the union message, Bush tried to convince Americans and the rest of the world that Saddam Hussein's regime was a threat because he was developing a nuclear weapons program.

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," Bush said in January.

That statement was based on correspondence between officials in Iraq and Niger that are now widely accepted as forgeries.

Yeah, but we've only known for four flippin' months that they were forgeries... I wonder at this stage what exactly made the Bushites come clean. I'd like to think that it was the growing public wave of disgust with this type of conduct, but given that that's non-existent, I'm thinking that the more likely explanation is simply that the lie had held on long enough, and allowed Bush&Co.'s goals to be realized.

An official with the CIA was sent to Niger to investigate whether Iraq tried to buy uranium from the country.

The official reported back that it was highly doubtful such a transaction ever took place.

The official said the office of U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney would have received that report.

The claim made it into the state of the union address anyway, and many in Washington are asking how that could have happened.

Anyone in Washington who's sincerely "asking how that could have happened" is out-of-touch to an unprecedented degree. Now, can someone down there please show a little bit of spine and impeach that asshole? Pleeeeeeeze? This whole situation is mightily redolent of this one...