We clueless and feeling g-o-o-o-d!

[khaosworks]

Rumsfeld Not Aware of US General's Mission to Niger to Discuss Uranium Security
Alex Belida
Pentagon
15 Jul 2003, 17:07 UTC

The Pentagon said a senior military official traveled to Niger in February last year to discuss the security of the West African country's uranium deposits. But there is no indication Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was ever informed of the mission.

The previously-undisclosed mission to Niger in February 2002 was carried out by General Carlton Fulford, then deputy commander of the U.S. European Command, the headquarters responsible for military relations with most of sub-Saharan Africa.

According to defense officials, General Fulford was asked by the U.S. Ambassador to Niger to meet with the country's president and to emphasize the importance of tight controls over its uranium ore deposits.

Niger had previously sold uranium ore, known as yellowcake, to Iraq two decades earlier. But the officials said General Fulford received assurances uranium mining operations in Niger were under control.

There is no indication why General Fulford was asked to undertake the mission nor whether he was aware of allegations by intelligence sources that Iraq had launched a new effort to procure yellowcake in Africa.

But the officials said the general's report on his mission was passed on to European Command Commander, General Joseph Ralston. They say General Ralston in turn passed the information along to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers.

A spokesman for General Myers said the general, America's senior uniformed officer, has no recollection of the information but does not dispute that it was passed on to him.

However the spokesman tells VOA there was no reason for General Myers to pass the information on to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Okay, let me get this straight - a top military official goes to West Africa to discuss the security of nuclear-capable materials and Rumsfeld knows nothing about it? And nobody knows why Fulford was sent to discuss this with Niger? The same Niger that subsequently US intelligence supposedly claimed was where Iraq was buying said nuclear-capable materials from? And there's no reason why the Defence Secretary should know about a top military official going to a West African nation to discuss nuclear security? And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs doesn't remember?

And these guys are controlling the armed forces of the most powerful military on the planet? And they're happily admitting their cluelessness and thinking it's no big deal?