Truth and the Daily Howler
A truly great website, The Daily Howler has been on a campaign to say that Dubya has been unfairly bashed for the 16 words about Iraq and uranium in the State of the Union address. If Bob Somerby would stop at saying that Dubya said no more than what is in the National Intelligence Estimate, I would agree with him (see my earlier post). However, Somerby seems intent on proving that what Dubya said is true.
Now, if somebody has accused someone of doing a vile deed and the other said, "Prove it!", isn't it up to the first party to back up what they said? If they can't back it up, wouldn't you consider them a liar? The support for the Iraq-trying-to-buy-uranium-from-Africa consists of lots of rumors and what-ifs, but absolutely no proof. However, Somerby seems to be saying that because the claims that Saddam tried to buy uranium from Africe haven't been disproven, what Dubya said must be true!
For example, Somerby cites this story from the Guardian:
Documents seen by the Guardian show that leaders of the Mayi-Mayi, a brutal militia embroiled in the country’s civil war, visited Baghdad twice and offered diamonds and gold to the Iraqis. Uranium was not mentioned in the documents but the intelligence officer said the Mayi-Mayi would be able to obtain the material in areas it controlled. As you can see, the story specifically states that there is no evidence that the Iraqis were even offered uranium. Now they may have, could have, possibly tried to obtain the uranium, but the claim wasn't that Iraqis could have tried to obtain uranium, but that they did try. Somerby cites other stories, but all of them report rumors and no facts.
On Saturday, Somerby linked to a story that mentioned that the Iraqi ambassador assigned to Niger actually visited Niger in 1999 and actually asked about trade. He apparently never said the "U" word, but just discussing trade is apparently enough "evidence" for Somerby. I guess the Iraqi ambassador assigned to Niger should never actually visit the country and if he does, should keep the conversation strictly on the weather.
Let's look at the rumors from the other way around - if Iraq actually went to the time and money to try to obtain uranium, what would they do with it? The only processing equipment US forces have found in Iraq was a partial centrifuge buried under a rose bush.
As I said earlier, the onus is on the White House to back up their claims. It is great to have a watchdog on the media, but in this case, the watchdog is barking up the wrong tree.
6:15:27 AM 
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