More on the fake uranium evidence...
Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake
The dangers of examining evidence with preconceived ideas in mind are obvious - you see what you want to see, and ignore or overlook the obvious flaws in the evidence. Something that should be kept in mind by all sides of any argument.
Of course, the Bush administration continues to insist that tubes are for a sinister purpose and cites "new information". We eagerly await its presentation. I've packed a lunch.
A key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program appears to have been fabricated, the United Nations' chief nuclear inspector said yesterday in a report that called into question U.S. and British claims about Iraq's secret nuclear ambitions.Worth reading to the end - the IAEA does not claim that the US or Britain forged these letters - accepting they were shared in good faith, and a US official admits that they "fell for it".
Documents that purportedly showed Iraqi officials shopping for uranium in Africa two years ago were deemed "not authentic" after careful scrutiny by U.N. and independent experts, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the U.N. Security Council.
ElBaradei also rejected a key Bush administration claim -- made twice by the president in major speeches and repeated by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday -- that Iraq had tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Also, ElBaradei reported finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in an extensive sweep of Iraq using advanced radiation detectors.
"There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities," ElBaradei said.
Knowledgeable sources familiar with the forgery investigation described the faked evidence as a series of letters between Iraqi agents and officials in the central African nation of Niger. The documents had been given to the U.N. inspectors by Britain and reviewed extensively by U.S. intelligence. The forgers had made relatively crude errors that eventually gave them away -- including names and titles that did not match up with the individuals who held office at the time the letters were purportedly written, the officials said.
The dangers of examining evidence with preconceived ideas in mind are obvious - you see what you want to see, and ignore or overlook the obvious flaws in the evidence. Something that should be kept in mind by all sides of any argument.
Of course, the Bush administration continues to insist that tubes are for a sinister purpose and cites "new information". We eagerly await its presentation. I've packed a lunch.
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