I started this blog to be on record so I could say “I told you so.”
Josh Marshall reports that—despite what the T-Bone and the FCO have claimed—Britain did not have a second source for their bogus claim the Iraq was pursuing Niger:
So, wait! Didn’t the Brits have some other source of intelligence for the Iraq-Niger claim? Don’t believe it. More coming on that this evening.
Paul, too, noted in Juy that he was “doubtful … the UK has anything worth a damn.”
The US intelligence community has long believed that the forged documents (see one, below) were the sole source, but what clinched it for me the incongruity between the doubt cast by the forgeries and T-Bone’s claim of an independent, second source.
Cryptome has the fakes.
Back when T-Bone trotted out the pathetic second source song and dance, the UK House Foreign Affairs Committee called the claim “very odd indeed”—a polite Briticism for bullshit:
We conclude that it is very odd indeed that the Government asserts that it was not relying on the evidence which has since been shown to have been forged, but that eight months later it is still reviewing the other evidence.
[snip]
We recommend that the Government explain on what evidence it relied for its judgment in September 2002 that Iraq had recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. We further recommend that in its response to this Report the Government set out whether it still considers the September dossier to be accurate in what it states about Iraq’s attempts to procure uranium from Africa, in the light of subsequent events.
Can’t wait for Josh’s complete post …
Update: Alas, Josh’s post is merely a summary of his July 2004 post. He “can’t prove to you that the Brits have nothing else.” Vindication must wait.