Local News, Stuck on Stupid
The local Palo Alto paper reported on Ambassador Joe Wilson's talk at Stanford and displays a level of common ignorance about this story. The article says that Wilson's report on uranium in Niger revealed that no 'deal' took place. Fine, perhaps no deal took place, but President Bush never said any such a thing to begin with. His famous 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union speech merely said: “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently 'sought' significant quantities of uranium from Africa .” Not that they had a contract to sell, a confirmed sale, or an understanding to purchase unranium--merely an effort. In addition, British intelligence continues to stand by their claims and that was the source cited by the president.
Wilson's reception at Stanford and elsewhere depends on a press that insists on ignoring this as well as those disclosed by the United States Senate Select Committee on Senate Intelligence. The committee found (page 43) that no one in the CIA believed Wilson's report added much to the Iraq Niger uranium story except to note that the former prime minister of Niger said that an Iraqi delegation visited Niger in order to discuss uranium sales. It also charged the ambassador with making claims about forged documents about which he was in no position to know and of falsely claiming his wife had nothing to do with his work for the CIA. Following the devastating conclusions of the committee, and of Factcheck.org, Ambassador Wilson went into hiding and waited for the country to forget this humiliation. Wilson, apparently, believes that he is free to make false statements without being challenged.
In a recent speech at San Francisco State University Wilson was urged to run for elected office. His response: (I've had) "too many wives and taken too many drugs. And, yes, I did inhale." It would seem that those applauding the Stanford talk are in a long term relationship with Wilson and breathing his second hand smoke--including the local reporter Jean Whitney.
Wilson's reception at Stanford and elsewhere depends on a press that insists on ignoring this as well as those disclosed by the United States Senate Select Committee on Senate Intelligence. The committee found (page 43) that no one in the CIA believed Wilson's report added much to the Iraq Niger uranium story except to note that the former prime minister of Niger said that an Iraqi delegation visited Niger in order to discuss uranium sales. It also charged the ambassador with making claims about forged documents about which he was in no position to know and of falsely claiming his wife had nothing to do with his work for the CIA. Following the devastating conclusions of the committee, and of Factcheck.org, Ambassador Wilson went into hiding and waited for the country to forget this humiliation. Wilson, apparently, believes that he is free to make false statements without being challenged.
In a recent speech at San Francisco State University Wilson was urged to run for elected office. His response: (I've had) "too many wives and taken too many drugs. And, yes, I did inhale." It would seem that those applauding the Stanford talk are in a long term relationship with Wilson and breathing his second hand smoke--including the local reporter Jean Whitney.
posted by Robert Holmgren at 10/26/2005
1 Comments:
How do you know these things? You must know everything!
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