The “killer” intelligence on supposed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was a series of documents showing Iraqi clandestine purchase of over one hundred tons of yellowcake uranium from Niger. The documents turned out to be forgeries, and really lousy forgeries at that, with things like poorly-drawn copies of official seals. A few minutes of study by an expert would cause anyone to throw them in the trash can – unless they really, really wanted to believe.
The likely culprits were three former CIA officials who had links both to the neo-con community and Iraqi exile groups. Although they benefited financially from the subsequent invasion and occupation, their motives appear to have been ideological rather than venal, not that that makes much difference to the thousands who died in the subsequent fighting.
It looks as if we’re facing the same situation with some of the emerging documentation on the supposed Iranian nuclear weapons program. This time the culprit appears to be Israeli intelligence – another player with a vested interest in steering US policy and public opinion in more bellicose directions. Read about it here.
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Al said:
Using the link and reading the article just brings up additional questions.
1. If these 3 Neo-Con CIA agents are the culprits why are the forgeries so bad? Surely they could have done better—I would expect I could do better on my own. As described in the article, misspellings and an amateurish seal as evidence of forgery. I am inclined to believe that adds to the authenticity. Why would forgers unless it’s a second grader making a D into a B, be such simpletons? Even in 1999 the computers and the Internet was available to help.
2. This article suggests that all evidence for Iraq seeking uranium from Niger are based on these “forged” documents.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:14 pm