...Or was a "useful idiot" (emphasis on "idiot").

<link>

Well then GWB can pardon him after he is convicted just like he pardoned the other criminal in this case and like he will pardon Rove IF Rove ever returns to the USA.

Also, at leave Wilson was a useful idiot.

Unlike GWB would is an idiot, but isn't even useful!

GWB is a criminal and his 7+ years in office have been one major failure after another.

Again we have fresh evidence that the pro-war side continues to intentionally disseminate carefully worded misleading information. A careful perusal of the AP story shows that nowhere do they assert that the uranium ore in question related to Saddam's alleged attempt to acquire uranium ore from Niger since the first gulf war. In fact, even the most intellectually dishonest neocons never tried to claim that Saddam had actually succeeded in those alleged efforts, only that he had supposedly proposed a deal. And even those allegations are known to be dubious at best.

The uranium ore that was just removed from Iraq was the same stockpile that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had known about from its inspections immediately after the first gulf war. It was most likely acquired during the 1980s, and had been sealed and unavailable to Saddam since the early 1990s. It has absolutely nothing to do with Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. These facts are not new, but they're being presented in a misleading way to allow the credululous, unsophisticated or willfully ignorant -- people like you, apparently -- to misconstrue the situation.

The Iraq Survey Group's final report in 2004 stated the following:

In May 2003, coalition forces visited the former yellowcake extraction plant at Al-Qaim and discovered 16 drums of yellowcake and radioactive waste—materials we believe were associated with the pre-1991 nuclear weapons program. These drums were transferred in late June 2003 to the yellowcake storage facility located at Tuwaitha. There is no evidence that this material had been produced after Desert Storm

[ ... ]

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Iraq bought uranium in various forms from the international market. These materials included about 486 tons of yellowcake, 33,470 kg of “natural” uranium dioxide, 1,767 kg of “low-enriched” uranium dioxide (2.6 percent 235U), and 6,005 kg of “depleted” uranium dioxide from Portugal, Italy, Niger, and Brazil.

Iraq also had domestic sources for uranium ore.

So please, explain to us in more detail how this proves Joe Wilson wrong. Explain to us how this uranium ore, that is known to have been sealed away for more than 15 years, has anything at all to do with Joe Wilson or the alleged attempt to acquire uranium from Niger since the first gulf war. Go ahead, we're waiting . . .

Explain? Those suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome will never explain their desperate, incoherent defense of their Dear Leader. It's an article of religious faith. Their Dear Leader can do no wrong, therefore any claim to the contrary must be a lie.

God and George W. Bush. What a team!

JackHughes:

Explain? Those suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome will never explain their desperate, incoherent defense of their Dear Leader. It's an article of religious faith. Their Dear Leader can do no wrong, therefore any claim to the contrary must be a lie.

God and George W. Bush. What a team!

The Associated Press is suffering from "[Pro-] Bush Derangement Syndrome"? Or didn't you read the link I provided?

Don Schenk:

...Or was a "useful idiot" (emphasis on "idiot").

<link>

Wrong. This story has nothing to do with Saddam allegedly trying to purchase yellowcake from Nigeria.

Don, are you unable to process information that disagrees with your prejudices? Can you assimilate a fact as simple and straightforward as this: the uranium that was shipped to Canada had been sealed by the IAEA since 1991 and could not possibly have any bearing on Joe Wilson's mission to Niger, which was about much later claims. Everyone, including Joe Wilson, knew about the pre-existing stockpile that was sealed after the end of the first gulf war.

You should really think twice before using terms like "useful idiot." But you can't really be that stupid (can you?), so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say for now that you're just intellectually dishonest.

fingerpuppet:

Don, are you unable to process information that disagrees with your prejudices? Can you assimilate a fact as simple and straightforward as this: the uranium that was shipped to Canada had been sealed by the IAEA since 1991 and could not possibly have any bearing on Joe Wilson's mission to Niger, which was about much later claims. Everyone, including Joe Wilson, knew about the pre-existing stockpile that was sealed after the end of the first gulf war.

You should really think twice before using terms like "useful idiot." But you can't really be that stupid (can you?), so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say for now that you're just intellectually dishonest.

The Prime Miniaster of Nigeria at the time that Joe Wilson visited said that Saddam was shopping for "yellow cake".

And what do you think that Saddam was going to do with that "yellow cake", whenever he acquired it? Sell it to Canada himself, or keep it until the coast was clear?

I suppose there will always be room for dead-end Bush supporters to continue to claim that Saddam tried to acquire uranium ore from Niger, since they never have to base their claims on any actual facts. But after Wilson's NY Times rebuttal to Bush's "16 words" statement in the the State of the Union address, even the Bush administration itself admitted that the statement about yellowcake was wrong. Consider the following:

Ari Fleischer: "Now, we've long acknowledged -- and this is old news, we've said this repeatedly -- that the information on yellow cake did, indeed, turn out to be incorrect."

Condoleeza Rice: "What we've said subsequently is, knowing what we now know, that some of the Niger documents were apparently forged, we wouldn't have put this in the President's speech -- but that's knowing what we know now."

So it seems like a huge stretch to say that "Joe Wilson lied." And to try to bolster that claim with a sleazy and dishonest bit of sleight-of-hand that tries to present a 15-year-old sealed stockpile of uranium as though it might have been acquired after the first gulf war (and thereby have anything at all to do with Wilson's mission) is nothing short of contemptible. Shame on Christopher Merola for trying to mislead people about this matter, and shame on you for going along with the dishonesty.

Progess in Iraq "Overwhelming" <link>

Security progress in Basra is “overwhelming” and Iraq’s second-largest city could be “another Dubai in the coming decade,” the commander of Multinational Division Southeast said today, referring to the bustling international business hub.

The Truth about Iraqi WMD's

1. The Terrorist Watch, Ronald Kessler

2. Shadow Warriors, Kenneth Timmerman -- Nobel peace prize nominee

3. Saddam'sSecrets, Georges Sada

4.The Bomb in My Garden, Dr. Mahdi Obeidi

5. Saddam’s Bomb Maker, Dr. Khidir Hamza

6. Disinformation, Richard Miniter

<link> 0.shtml


WASHINGTON -- In a rare rebuke of a public official by name, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee has issued a scathing report blasting former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV.

The report claims Wilson misled the public and the intelligence committee about his trip to Niger in 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium in Africa.

Best known as the husband of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, Ambassador Wilson was catapulted to the limelight after he published an Op-Ed in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, that accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence on Iraq to make the case for war.

In his New York Times article, Wilson said that in February 2002 he was asked by the Central Intelligence Agency to travel to Niger to investigate "a particular intelligence report" that documented the sale of uranium to Iraq by the Niger government.

The CIA wanted him to "check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office," after Vice President Dick Cheney had raised questions about the purported uranium deals, he wrote.

Once he arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey, Wilson says he met with U.S. Ambassador Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, then "spent the next eight days drinking sweet mint tea" and meeting with former government officials and others involved in the uranium business. "It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place."

I feel kinda sorry for Chris. You can see his little picture above his sleazy little article. Now there's a guy with no pride and no integrity. He's willing to besmirch the good name his father gave him for the sake of snaring stupid people with dishonest rhetoric. Your average street walker makes a more honest living.

I don't remember you saying that you knew Mr. Merola or his father for that matter.

This is typical liberal propaganda. Never do they ask themselves if they might possibly be wrong. No, it is never them. The other people must be wrong because never does their narcissistic identity allow them to questions themselves.

Liberals are so self absorbed they have to blame others and play the victim. Otherwise, their fragile ego would break if they has to examine their own lies.

Mr. Merola is a patriot.

When the truth is told in such a clear way and then not received, there is only one conclusion we can come to: The left is insane! Give it to them Christopher Merola, you are the best!