UPDATE: This story has turned out to be fake. More details here.
YELLOWCAKE-GATE UPDATE….I’m not sure how seriously to take this, but Capitol Hill Blue reports that Bush definitely knew the Niger uranium story was bogus before he used it in his State of the Union address:
An intelligence consultant who was present at two White House briefings where the uranium report was discussed confirmed that the President was told the intelligence was questionable and that his national security advisors urged him not to include the claim in his State of the Union address.
“The report had already been discredited,” said Terrance J. Wilkinson, a CIA advisor present at two White House briefings. “This point was clearly made when the President was in the room during at least two of the briefings.”
Bush’s response was anger, Wilkinson said.
“He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn’t prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could,” Wilkinson said. “He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country.”
I don’t know who Terrance J. Wilkinson is, and a quick Google search didn’t bring up anything relevant. Hopefully someone else will have a chat with Wilkinson and confirm whether there’s anything to this story.
