Flit

IF NOT NIGER, WHERE?

The "Bush didn't lie" story keeps changing, interview to interview. The current iteration is that the State of the Union address was truthful enough, because the British government still believes that there were attempts by Iraq to import uranium ore from countries in Niger other than Africa (For the record, there's only four African countries with a uranium export business... Gabon, Namibia, and South Africa are the other three.) Instapundit approvingly cites one such arguer today.

Unfortunately, that's NOT what the British are saying.

PM Tony Blair is himself conceding the September 2002 British intelligence report only referred to Niger, and is arguing that it's technically correct, too (After all, all IT said was "there is intelligence" that Iraq had "sought" uranium ore in Niger, not that they definitely were, or had actually gotten any... the British line, not to put too fine a public point on it, is that the Americans overstated the British case. What other evidence Blair has in his pocket, other than the pre-existing Iraq-Niger export relationship, is still unclear. But there's almost certainly no evidence relating to any other country, and the British at least, are not pretending there is.