"thunder" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 15:47:16 +0000, NOYB wrote:


"thunder" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:10:52 +0000, NOYB wrote:


"thunder" wrote in message
news On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 20:29:07 +0000, NOYB wrote:


The second item contains a report of how Iraqi intelligence,
helped
by
"a small team from the al-Qaeda organisation", arranged for an
(unspecified) shipment from Niger to reach Baghdad by way of Libya
and
Syria.

Iraqi officials believe this is a reference to the
controversial
shipments of uranium ore Iraq acquired from Niger to aid Saddam in
his
efforts to develop an atom bomb, although there is no explicit
reference in the document to this.

I think, at least this part, is BS. IMO uranium from Niger has been
totally debunked.

Actually, the uranium from Niger report hasn't been totally debunked.
British intelligence stands by its original story. If you remember,
it was CIA employee Valerie Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, who made
the claim that he could find no evidence of the uranium
transfer...and
his bias is evidenced by his maxed out campaign contributions to the
Democratic Party and John Kerry's campaign...and by the anti-war
piece
he
wrote for Nation magazine in February.

Read the above. It says Iraq *acquired* uranium from Niger.

No it doesn't. It talks of an "unspecified" shipment from Niger to
Baghdad...which was shipped with the help of al qaeda via Lybia and
Syria.

Huh? "Iraqi officials believe this is a reference to the controversial
shipments of uranium ore Iraq acquired from Niger to aid Saddam in his
efforts to develop an atom bomb, although there is no explicit reference
in the document to this."'

The memo cited in the news report talks of an "unspecified" shipment. The
news report itself says "Iraqi officials believe this is reference to the
controversial shipments of uranium". The original Italian document proved
to be forgery...but MI6 stands by their intel that said that Iraq indeed did
seek uranium. I feel you just can't say for sure that an attempt to
purchase uranium never took place.