Tuesday, December 13, 2005

French Told CIA Niger Uranium Stories Were Crap

I don't care what any Neo-Con says about the French in their GOP quest to discredit & smear them... I adore the House of Cacharel, and I will wear their heavenly fragrances come hell or high water... and now I come to find out the French also knew that the Niger/ uranium claim was complete crap: LATimes: "More than a yr before Bush declared in his 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear weapons material in Africa, the French spy service began repeatedly warning the CIA that there was no evidence to support the allegation. The previously undisclosed exchanges between the US & the French, described in interviews last wk by the retired chief of the French counterintelligence service and a former CIA official, came on separate occasions in '01 and '02. The French conclusions were reached after extensive on the ground investigations in Niger and other former French colonies, where the uranium mines are controlled by French companies, said Alain Chouet, the French former official. He said the French investigated at the CIA's request. Chouet's account was "at odds w/ our understanding of the issue," a US govt official said. The US official declined to elaborate and spoke only on condition that neither he nor his agency be named. However, the essence of Chouet's account (that the French repeatedly investigated the Niger claim, found no evidence to support it, and warned the CIA) was extensively corroborated by the former CIA official and a current French govt official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity." Well, of course they only speak on condition of anonymity. They don't want to be "Valerie Plamed" and they don't want to turn up in a seedy hotel rm w/ a dead girl and live boy in their bed.
Posted by Tina :: 12:26 AM :: 2 Comments:

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