On July 7, 2003, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer “called reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post and engaged in a rare act: he admitted a White House mistake. ‘White House Backs Off Claim on Iraqi Buy,’ read the headline…in the Post the next morning. ‘Knowing all that we know now,’ a senior […]
7/7/2003
On July 7, 2003, White House Press Secretary Ari “Fleischer inadvertently dropped a small bombshell: ‘Now, we’ve long acknowledged–and this is old news, we’ve said this repeatedly – that the information on yellowcake [uranium, being sold by Niger to Iraq] did, indeed, turn out to be incorrect.’ ” – Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the […]
7/6/2003
“On July 6, 2003, he [former Ambassador Joseph Wilson] told his story [of investigating the possible Niger/Iraq uranium deal] in his own name for the first time in an op-ed published in the New York Times. He acknowledged that he ‘never saw’ the forgeries [that claimed the Niger/Iraq link], and he later conceded the same […]
7/6/2003
According to presidential Advisor Karl Rove, former Ambassador “Joe Wilson was wrong [in his July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed] when he twisted the Bush administration’s statement that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium in Africa into a claim that Iraq had obtained uranium. Our argument was based on intent: we never suggested the […]
7/6/2003
Former Ambassador to Iraq, Joe Wilson, wrote a New York Times column on July 6, 2003: “describing what he believed to be the truth [that Saddam Hussein was not seeking yellowcake uranium from Niger]. …Immediately, the White House launched a campaign to intimidate Wilson by attacking him, and in violation of federal law, made public […]
7/6/2003
“After meeting with dozens of former and current government officials and people involved in the uranium business in Niger, [former Ambassador Joseph] Wilson wrote in the [New York] Times [on July 6, 2003], ‘it did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction [for Niger to sell uranium to […]
7/6/2003
On July 6, 2003, former Ambassador and Envoy to Niger Joe Wilson wrote an article in The New York Times. “Under the headline ‘What I Didn’t Find in Africa’–he opened his piece with a question: ‘Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?’ His answer: ‘based […]
7/6/2003
“A column written by Joseph Wilson, the former ambassador to Gabon, was…published on Sunday, July 6 [2003], in The New York Times. Wilson had been sent by the CIA, at the behest of [Vice President Dick] Cheney, in February 2002, to investigate claims that Hussein was attempting to buy ‘yellowcake’ uranium from the African nation […]
7/5/2003
“On Saturday, July 5 [2003], [CIA Director George] Tenet talked to the chief NSC [National Security Council] spokesperson, Anna Perez. As best she could tell, the fact that the 16 words about the uranium [sought in Niger by Iraq] had made it into the State of the Union address was the result of failures in […]
7/4/2003
On July 4, 2003, the day after Coalition Provisional Authority leader L. Paul Bremer offered a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Saddam, “an audiotape was broadcast on Al Jazeera. The CIA concluded that the voice was probably Saddam’s, and the speaker warned: ‘The coming days will, God willing, be days […]