BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Friday, July 18, 2003
Drip, drip, drip. No matter
how much cover Tony Blair tries to give George W. Bush, the news for
the White House keeps getting worse.
Today the Washington Post's
Walter
Pincus and Dana Priest
report that the State Department received those forged Niger uranium
documents three months before the State of the Union address -- and
four months before the documents were finally turned over to UN
weapons inspectors. Write Pincus and Priest:
State Department officials
could not say yesterday why they did not turn over the documents
when the inspectors asked for them in December.
Both the Post and the New
York Times' James
Risen and David Sanger
offer details on how National Security Council staffer Robert Joseph
pushed to include the phony Niger connection in the State of the
Union even though CIA director George Tenet had personally acted to
keep it out of Bush's October 7 speech.
Meanwhile, former secretary of
defense Caspar
Weinberger comes riding to
Bush's defense with a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece (free
registration required) that attempts to resurrect the Niger story.
Earth to Cap: perhaps there is something to it, as Blair
insists. The issue is the White House's cavalier treatment of a
forgery. But, then, lest we forget, Weinberger received a
presidential pardon from Bush's father.
Loyalty counts.
The sneering subhead on
Weinberger's piece: "How many electoral votes does Niger have,
anyway?" Well, gosh, I guess that would be zero. Can't argue with
that.
posted at 7:52 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
