By Michael Isikoff and David Corn.
Amazon.com page
The beginning of the review at Amazon:
quote:
Editorial Reviews
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
In October 2002, a file of documents from the U.S. embassy in Rome arrived on the desk of one of the State Department's senior nuclear proliferation analysts. The papers had been handed over by an Italian journalist, who had been given them by an informer who had, in turn, obtained them from a mysterious source in the embassy of Niger. The documents purported to show that Niger had signed a July 2000 deal to supply Iraq with 500 tons of yellowcake uranium -- about one-sixth of the African country's annual production and a key ingredient in a uranium-enrichment process that could provide Saddam Hussein's regime with a nuclear bomb.
As Simon Dodge of the State Department's intelligence bureau began to review the documents in Washington, he soon concluded that they were fakes. One of the papers described a secret meeting in Rome at which representatives of Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Pakistan formed a joint "plan of action" to defend themselves against the West in alliance with "Islamic patriots accused of belonging to criminal organizations." Dodge later told Senate investigators that he considered the claim "completely implausible," or, as Michael Isikoff and David Corn put it, "something out of James Bond -- or maybe Austin Powers." Niger embassy stamps, palpably fake, linked the "plan of action" document to those depicting the Iraq deal. The papers are a hoax, Dodge e-mailed colleagues.
Plus more.
See also the reader reviews towards the bottom of the page, and/or starting
here.
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Book excerpt
The beginning of the excerpt:
quote:
The president’s message was direct. There was no time to wait. The showdown with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, had to start right away.
It was the morning of September 4, 2002, and George W. Bush had summoned eighteen senior members of the House and Senate to the Cabinet Room of the White House. When the lawmakers took their seats at the imposing oval mahogany table, they were given copies of a letter from the president. "America and the civilized world face a critical decision in the months ahead," it began. "The decision is how to disarm an outlaw regime that continues to possess and develop weapons of mass destruction." Bush told the assembled leaders he needed a quick vote in Congress on a resolution that would grant him the authority to take on Saddam”perhaps with military action. He wanted this vote within six weeks”before Congress left town so members could campaign for reelection. It was the start of an extraordinary public relations campaign by the White House to persuade the American people”and the world”that Saddam was such a pressing threat that war might be the only option.
Plus more.
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I'm about 1/4th of the way through the book so far. At this point the main culprits are Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
I'm am struck by the parallels between how the GW Bush administration and the Young Earth Creationist movement operate. Both start at a conclusion (going to war against Iraq / young Earth etc.). Both grasp(ed) at any support for their position, however weak and/or discredited it may be. GW Bush and company had their own variation of Morton's demon (will it become known as Colon Powell's demon?), accepting what then wanted to hear and filtering out what they didn't want to hear.
Kind of like having Kent Hovind as president, Ken Ham as vice president, and Carl Baugh as defense secretary.
Moose
Professor, geology, Whatsamatta U
Evolution - Changes in the environment, caused by the interactions of the components of the environment.
"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer." - Bruce Graham
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith
"I know a little about a lot of things, and a lot about a few things, but I'm highly ignorant about everything." - Moose
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