Reply #28: I believe Tony Blair's visit to the ranch...

[punpirate]

... in August, 2002, figures prominently in this.... That's when they got together and worked on what they would say to the public. And Tony's coming tomorrow to help get their stories straight.

Both the U.S. and UK know, probably to the pound, what Niger's annual production of yellowcake is, and where it goes. Both administrations knew it was bullshit from the start. Very likely, one of the INC exiles knew that Iraq had tried to obtain the stuff from Niger in the `80s, made the claim that the effort was still ongoing, and that's all that Cheney and his Office of Special Plans needed.
When Wilson's mission for Cheney didn't pan out, it didn't stop them from using the lie. Italy has denied providing the document. France has denied that they were involved, and recent suggestions that the UK couldn't have supplied it to the U.S. because of intelligence restraints is lame. In better times, there would be a whistleblower, somewhere, who would speak to the origin of the document. The worst case scenario? The OSP forged the document to perpetuate the lie and gave it to Tony Blair in August, 2002.

Cheers.