Hitchens - Essential Reading on Niger/Wilson/Plame

[Chomp]

Sitting comfortably? Good, because in these 2 articles, Hitchens pursuasively argues, among other things, that:

a. Iraq did go uranium shopping in Niger
b. Plame did recommend Wilson for the Niger job

Here are the articles, which I think are essential reading.

Wowie Zahawie - Sorry everyone, but Iraq did go uranium shopping in Niger.
http://www.slate.com/id/2139609/nav/tap2 /

Plame's Lame Game - What Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife forgot to tell us about the yellow-cake scandal (July 2004)
http://www.slate.com/id/2103795 /


Disagree with Hitchens on Iraq? Fine, me too. But I defy you to find any factual errors in his writing. He's someone that moves you out of your mental comfort zone without lying to you and that in itself demands respect and attention.

Some people will reject this out of hand as some kind of Rovian plot or crude hackery, but Hitchens is smarter than that and, probably, smarter than you.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Crunch, munch, munch...

:popcorn:

[Terran1212]

2. "Hitchens is smarter than that and, probably, smarter than you."

He claimed in a recent debate with Scott Ritter that "beside one clumsy remark by the Vice President, they never tried to tie 9/11 to Iraq"

[marylanddem]

3. Are you, in fact, Hitchens?

[Emit]

LOL. That thought occurred to me as well. n/t

[blm]

43. Would Hitchens misspell persuasively?

.

[seemslikeadream]

4. comfort zone

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:




on edit:
Hitchens drinks alot more than I do, way more

[malaise]

27. Does that popinjay have any thoughts

on what happens to that Italy - Niger link now that Berlusconi has lost power?

[seemslikeadream]

34. i and i malaise, ketch them vampiyah

BANDULU: bandit, criminal, one living by guile
BANDULU BIZNESS is a racket, a swindle


Ya no see it, malaise?
JAH BLESS

Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampiyah
Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampiyah
I have the chalice to light up Jah fiyah!
When i and i ketch them vampiyah
i and i a go set them a fiyah

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

QUESTION: Thank you. Any more explanation of the Berlusconi-President discussion about Italian intelligence on Iraq -- is this to say that Mr. Fitzgerald's finding that the Niger claim had its genesis in Italian intelligence was wrong?
SCOTT McCLELLAN: Mr. Fitzgerald's -- I'll have to look back at what his finding was. I don't recall the specifics of that.

QUESTION: Fitzgerald found that what we had been calling British intelligence, the document -- the forged document --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Maybe I missed that. I don't think so. I don't think so.

QUESTION: -- alleging an Iraq --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Okay, I don't think he did.

QUESTION: I'm wrong on this?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Maybe I'm wrong. But I don't think he --

QUESTION: That's not ringing any bells.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes.

QUESTION: It's not ringing any bells with other people either.

QUESTION: No, it is, it is. And I can't remember if it's Fitzgerald or somebody else, but there's this is the central issue is --

QUESTION: The central issue was --

QUESTION: -- the source of the --

QUESTION: The source of the forged document was Italy, who handed it to --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: No, the -- we actually briefed on the source of the information back in July of 2003, and the source was the National Intelligence Estimate and British Intelligence. That was the basis for the reference in the President's State of the Union address.

QUESTION: Fitzgerald found an Italian tie, and I presume this is what the discussion between the President and Berlusconi was about.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, they -- like I said they -- Prime Minister Berlusconi brought it up, and as they indicated, that there wasn't any documents that were provided to us on Niger and uranium by --

QUESTION: Wait, no documents or no intelligence?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: The press report out of Italy is a transcription -- it's a transcription of the forged documents, not the actual documents themselves. But Berlusconi said yesterday was, no information passed from Italy to the United States.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, I think he was accurately reflecting what he indicated in the meeting.

QUESTION: So that accurately characterizes the President's position, that the United States never received any intelligence --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, Prime Minister Berlusconi was reflecting that within the meeting, and we've previously said in regards to a question that came up about a meeting here at the White House that no one here has any recollection of Niger and uranium being discussed at that meeting, much less any documents being provided.

[trumad]

5. Tick tock---Tick tock....

[librechik]

6. hee hee

Hitchens smart? Just has a large vocabulary. Sorry, his credibility is gone as far as I'm concerned. Sad. He used to have a clue. Now he can't get one.

[Runcible Spoon]

8. I'd buy him a clue but..

he'd prolly blow the $$ on cheap whisky

[Runcible Spoon]

7. who's the drink sodden popinjay who posted this?

:evilgrin:

[Coexist]

12. you forgot former Trotskyist.

[brucefan]

14. Rovian plot?

No.Drunken blowhardt?Si.

[TexasLawyer]

LOL

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

just wondering the same thing-- except my formulation of the question was much less eloquent.

[Gabi Hayes]

9. welllllll, he's CERtainly smarter than YOU

And I DO NOT mean it as much of a compliment, obviously

since you're so easily swayed, why not try the Larry Johnson Timeline, in which he deals with Hitchens' idiotic, fact-FREE ramblings, which rely only on his forensic "skills" to deduce what happened WRT Iraq's supposed yellow cake shopping spree.

now, QUICK, smart boy, who were the other TWO officials who went to Niger to find out what happened, before Wilson, and who came to the same conclusion?

what does the down in his cups neowingnut apologist have to say about THEM?

huh, smartypants?

oh yeah, I'm surprised you didn't cite that wonderful Sunday Washington Post Editorial, which spouts the same line as your sad little linkage; the one which their own newspage
demonstrated to be utterly false

[trumad]

13. Smack!

[blm]

18. Ba da bum

.

[Chomp]

40. Larry Johnson's

timeline starts in 2001. Hitchens is talking about an event in 1999.

[blm]

10. Plame was ASKED about her husband's ability to take the mission and

THAT was the basis of her recommendation. Why is THAT crucial part never addressed by Bush apologists?

[LSK]

19. no shit

Their claims of Wilson lies are such BS.

[Coexist]

11. Hitchens and Essential reading in the same sentence...

:rofl:

I am laughing so hard I can't read your links...

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Would you mind posting a few paragraphs?

I don't want to give his website any more hits then necessary to read his drivel.

[Skarbrowe]

16. Wilson addressed this article yesterday. There were meetings BUT

the meetings Hitchens happens to be talking about had nothing to do with uranium or yellow cake. Hopefully, someone will find an article that explains it a lot better than my feeble memory. It was on Countdown with Keith on April 10th, I believe.

[trumad]

20. Larry Johnson refutes this easily

http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/28744

[Gabi Hayes]

22. ahhhh! but what you need to read between the lines, ala Hitchens, etal,

is that the participants in said meetings were, in addition to being members of each country's trade missions, MENTALISTS!

they communicated Iraq's need for yellowcake (which they already HAD, and which was stolen from Tuwaitha after the invasion, IIRC, along with TONS of other radioactive materials, excellent precursors for things like, oh, say DIRTY BOMBS), by merely touching foreheads

I think that was in one of the paragraphs edited out by Hitchens' AA sponsor

[Hamlette]

31. yes, he did debunk this AND Hitchens says nothing more than

the guy took a trip to Niger. We go to war because an Iraqi guy takes a trip to Niger with no more info?

I did read the articles, nothing new here. Those of us who have followed this case have heard what Hitchens has to say and find it so much blather.

And as the next poster notes, so WHAT if Valerie sent him? Does that make his allegations false? Exactly how.

(Sometime tell me why I wasted time answering this?)

[Gabi Hayes]

33. two words

flame bait

or is it Plame bait?

[LSK]

17. if Plame volunteered her well qualifed husband, so what??

How is that relevant? And the fact remains she brought him in the consult with the CIA and LEFT THE MEETING. It was at that meeting where they decided to send him.

[marylanddem]

23. As if a trip to Niger equated to a luxury vacation...

That's the absurd part of this whole "junket" allegation to me...not top on my list of junket spots...

[fooj]

21. Hitchens???

You must be joking....the guy is a drunken fool.

[stillcool]

24. a little reminder in case you forgot...

alcohol kills brain cells.

[LSK]

25. one more thing Mr Hitchens, who wrote that Senate Report???

Pat Roberts the same man who refuses to investigate how the White House used Intelligence on Iraq to go to war.

[Gabi Hayes]

26. I have a feeling this toaster brain has had his fun, and won't be back

in the near future

why waste time on such pathetic drivel?

very sorry he didn't put up Hiatt's Sunday comic, too.

[EstimatedProphet]

28. How is this clown still here?

his post reads like a smarmy 13 year old's work. "Smarter than you", indeed!

[H2O Man]

29. Michelle Malkin

is not a man.

[LSK]

35. man coulter is however

[H2O Man]

42. Good point

about a bad person.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

30. When he writes in a state of Sobreity

Perhaps, I'll read his articles again. Till then, he has my prayers for full recovery from this horrid disease that has caught up to him.

[LSK]

32. and finally, Iraq had plenty of Uranium and did not touch it

Nuclear Material Availability
32. All known procured, indigenously produced and practically recoverable uranium compounds
which were not removed by 1994, in accordance with resolution 687 (1991), have remained in
the custody of the IAEA, and are presently stored under IAEA seal. This includes the depleted
uranium imported in 1979, natural uranium imported in 1979 and 1981–1982, low enriched
uranium imported in 1982, yellow cake produced at the Al Qaim facility, uranium dioxide and
uranium tetrachloride produced by the Al Jesira facilities, and uranium compounds produced at
Tuwaitha. After the resumption of inspections in November 2002, verification of the nuclear
material subject to IAEA safeguards which is stored in the nuclear material store of Tuwaitha
“Location C”, was performed from 9 to 11 December 2002. The inspection activities (i.e. item
counting, tag checks, gross defect tests, enrichment measurements and weighing) did not
uncover any discrepancies.

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaIraq/unscreport_110403.pdf Page 7

# In 1991, Iraq was discovered to have about 500 metric tons (~1 million lbs.) of yellowcake they'd 'forgotten' to mention. George Herbert Walker Bush, his coalition pals, and the International Atomic Energy Agency were so alarmed that Iraq had yellowcake, they decided to leave it in Iraq. The "prudent" course of action as they saw it: put it drums, seal it up, and check the seals once a year. They knew an entire year was not long enough for Hussein to make anything dangerous out of yellowcake. <3, .pdf>

# That yellowcake was inspected and remained untouched until Hussein barred the U.N. inspectors in late 1998.

# On Oct. 6, 2002, the CIA sent a fax to the White House that stated "the procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq's nuclear ambitions because the Iraqis already have a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory. <4, para. 7, emphasis added>

# During Dec. 9-11, 2002, before Bush's SOTU claim that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake from Africa, U.N. Inspectors verified that the yellowcake from 1991 was in Iraq, undisturbed, and still sealed.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/24/182733/96

[Malikshah]

36. Sorry Charlie... Wilson himself debunked the drunken popinjay

last night.

Nice try though.

Watch out for that bridge.

[CottonBear]

37. George Galloway called Hitch "a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
<snip>
Whatever else you made of him, when it came to delivering sustained barrages of political invective, you had to salute his indefatigability.
George Galloway stormed up to Capitol Hill yesterday morning for the confrontation of his career, firing scatter-shot insults at the senators who had accused him of profiting illegally from Iraqi oil sales.

They were "neo-cons" and "Zionists" and a "pro-war lynch mob", he raged, who belonged to a "lickspittle Republican committee" that was engaged in creating "the mother of all smokescreens".


Before the hearing began, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow even had some scorn left over to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway in formed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead. "And you're a drink-soaked ..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away.

more...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1486417,00.html

[Me.]

38. Put Down That Bottle

and step away from the haze of smoke

[CottonBear]

39. "Poke Salad Annie, gator's got your granny. Chomp, Chomp, Chomp."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Zhade]

41. Hitchens is a drunk fucking LIAR.

Why the fuck would any intelligent person waste their time with his bullshit?

[wishlist]

44. Hitchens mistakenly believed Wilson was the Plame leaker too

I remember Hitchens wrongly predicting on TV that there would be no indictment of anyone in the White House in the Plame leak case because Wilson was the Plame leaker and the Bush Administration was innocent of wrongdoing because her identity was common knowledge.

He is totally a Bush apologist who is continuing to spin the leak to protect Bush and the neocon agenda.

[janx]

45. Having a British accent and relying on the overuse of

latinates does not mean that the guy is smart.

Rovian plot? No.

Crude hackery? YES--always.

[Sapere aude]

46. What I don't understand is this. With all the evidence there is showing

the administration lied about the reasons for going to war, why are there people who still try to hang on the the notion that there was any real reason to attack Iraq?

It can't be that everything else was untrue but this one thing was true. It doesn't make sence to me.

"The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history — worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra. Indeed, the idea that we were deceived into war makes many commentators so uncomfortable that they refuse to admit the possibility."
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F17FB38540C708CDDAF0894DB404482

[Fenris]

47. Locking.

Do not post "flame bait" discussion topics.